Full text of Oregon Legislation for Women in Industry : Women's Bureau Bulletin, No. 90

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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
BULLETIN OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU, No. 90

OREGON LEGISLATION
FOR

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY




[Public—No.

259—66th

Congress.]

[H. R. 13229.]
An Act To establish in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women’s Bureau.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That there shall be
established in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the
Women’s Bureau.
Sec. 2. That the said bureau shall be in charge of a director, a
woman, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, who shall receive an annual compensa­
tion of $5,000. It shall be the duty of said bureau to formulate
standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage­
earning wom'en, improve their working conditions, increase their
efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employ­
ment. The said bureau shall have authority to investigate and report
to the said department upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of
women in industry. The director of said bureau may from time to
time publish the results of these investigations in such a manner and
to such extent as the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
Sec. 3. That there shall be in said bureau an assistant director,
to be appointed by the Secretary of Labor, who shall receive an
annual compensation of $3,500 and shall perform such duties as
shall be prescribed by the director and approved by the Secretary
of Labor.
Sec. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be employed by said
bureau a chief clerk and such special agents, assistants, clerks, and
other employees at such rates of compensation and in such numbers
as Congress may from time to time provide by appropriations.
Sec. 5. That the Secretary of Labor is hereby directed to furnish
sufficient quarters, office furniture, and equipment, for the work of
this bureau.
Sec. 6. That this act shall take effect and be in force from and
after its passage.
Approved, June 5,1920.




UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
W. N. DOAK, SECRETARY

WOMEN’S BUREAU
MARY ANDERSON, Director

BULLETIN

OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU,

NO. 90

OREGON LEGISLATION
FOR

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY
BY

SISTER MIRIAM THERESA, Ph. D.
(CAROLINE J. GLEASON)

UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1931

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C.




Price 10 cents




CONTENTS
Page

Letter of transmittal
Introduction

v

Distribution of women in industry
Number and occupations of wage-earning women_________________
Age distribution of female wage earners
10
Marital condition of female wage earners
10
Competition of women with men
11
Trade organization of women workers
11
Seasonal employment
11
Child labor law
14
Ten hour law for women
17
Minimum-wage legislation___________________________________
The Oregon survey
20
Provisions and amendments of the law
22
Work of the commission
23
Constitutionality of the law
25
Direct effects of the law
27
Indirect effects of the law
30
Summary of first and latest wage and hour rulings of the industrial
welfare commission
33
The right to follow certain professions
35
Women teachers
36




m

1
9
9

20




LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department of Labor,
Women’s Bureau,

Washington, June 13, 1931.
I have the honor to submit herewith a brief report on legisla­
tion aifecting women in industry in the State of Oregon.
Partly a reprint from a thesis by the same author published in
1924, the present study has been amplified and brought up to date.
By this means, Oregon is added to the group of States whose history
of labor legislation for women was made available to readers in
Women’s Bureau Bulletin 66.
The report is the work of Sister Miriam Theresa, Ph. D. (Caroline
J. Gleason), of Marylhurst College, Marylhurst, Oswego, Oreg. The
legal references have been verified by Judge Hall Stoner Lusk, of
Portland, Oreg.
Respectfully submitted.
Mart Anderson, Director.
Hon. W. N. Doak,
Secretary of Labor.
Sir :




OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN
INDUSTRY
INTRODUCTION

The territory now included in the State of Oregon came into the
undisputed possession of the United States by a treaty with Great
Britain signed at Washington on June 15, 1846, when the northern
boundary of this country west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains
was fixed at the forty-ninth parallel.1 The “ Oregon Country ” then
included the present States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and a
small part of Montana. It had been held in joint occupation with
Great Britain since 1818 by two successive treaties that gave the
Americans and the English the “ equal right to trade and settle in any
part of the country,” but neither “could have absolute control over
any part of it till the question of ownership, or of boundary, was
settled.”2 In the first quarter of the nineteenth century neither Na­
tion had made any effort to colonize the section.
By 1840 there were about 137 white persons, including 34 women
and 32 children, in the Willamette Valley.3 Between 1836 and 1840 4 *
three memorials had been sent by the Americans to Congress peti­
tioning the extension of the authority of the United States over them.
We flatter ourselves that we are the germ of a great State; * * * the
country must populate. The Congress of the United States must say by whom.
The natural resources of the country, with a well-judged civil code, will invite a
good community. But a good community will hardly emigrate to a country
■which promises no protection to property.'

Thus wrote the 36 signers of the petition, but because of the joint
occupation treaty and because affairs nearer Washington seemed more
important, none of the petitions resulted in action by Congress.
Early in 1841 an attempt was made by a minority of the settlers to
organize and adopt a code of laws, but they were dissuaded from this
by several persons who thought that numbers and conditions in the
colony did not warrant it. By the spring of 1843 new settlers and
new problems had revived the question of the organization of a gov­
ernment, and as a result of the discussions the “ provisional govern­
ment of Oregon ” was formed. The rules and regulations adopted by
it on July 5, 1843, were called the “First organic law” of Oregon.
This law was in force for less than two years.
In 1845 the amended organic act, prepared by a subcommittee of
the legislative committee of that year, was first passed upon by the
latter body and then accepted by the people at the polls, where it
received a majority of 203 votes.6 This new compact, the provisional
1 Schafer, Joseph. History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 185.
3 Ibid., p. 93.
3 Scott, H. W. Formation of the Provisional Government, Oregon Historical Society
Quarterly, vol. 2, p. 98.
* Carey, C. H. History of Oregon, p. 368, note.
s Schafer, J. History of the Pacific Northwest, p. 134.
0 Oregon Archives, pp. 241-243.




1

2

OREGON LEGISLATION EOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

constitution, has been described as “ more nearly resembling a consti­
tution and being better suited to the needs of a growing community.”7
With the establishment of Oregon Territory by Congress in August,
1848, and the organization of the Territorial government in March,
1849, the provisional government passed into history. To summarize
the status of woman under it, one may say that she lived actually in
conditions that permitted great freedom of action and initiative,
but, strictly speaking, she was restricted by English common law, by
the first code of Iowa Territory, and by the law of the provisional
government. She was denied the vote and active participation in
legislation, but she was neither silent on this account nor ineffective
in her influence.
Oregon had been a State for almost 45 years before a serious effort
was made to protect the workers from the disabling results of poorly
regulated conditions of work. One reason for this was that the
State’s interest was agricultural rather than industrial; lumbering,
even to-day, is first in the list of industries ranked according to value
of product. The eight next in succession also show the “ soil ”
influence in the commercial activities of the State. These eight are
flour and grist mills, foundries and machine works, slaughtering and
meat packing, shipbuilding (wooden), fruit and vegetable canning
and preserving, bread and other bakery products, butter making, and
fish canning and preserving.8 *
Concerning the absence, until recent years, of labor legislation in
the West, it has been well said that “to pass the Massachusetts labor
code in these States [western] would have been like passing the west­
ern mining codes in New England.” As there were no mines in New
England, so there were no cotton mills in the far West, and yet it
was “ long made a reproach to the women voters that the hours of
labor of women and children in factories were not strictly controlled
in these States.” 0 Earty legislation that had a bearing on the work­
ing conditions of men and women gainfully employed was passed
either from a religious or from a protection-to-property view rather
than from a protection-to-labor view.
The first law concerning one day’s rest in seven was passed in 1854
from a religious impulse to keep Sunday inviolate. It provided
that—
No person shall keep open his or her store, shop, grocery, ball alley, billiard
saloon, tippling house, or any place of gaming or amusement, or do any secular
business other than works of necessity and mercy, on the first day of the week,
commonly called the Lord’s Day or Sunday.10

In cases of necessity this provision could be disregarded. The
penalty for offending was not to exceed $10, and it was to go to the
common-school fund.
A master and apprentices act passed in Oregon in 1849, following
an Iowa law of 10 years earlier, permitted minors of either sex to be
indentured, the male infants to 21 years, the female infants to 18
years, “ to serve as a clerk, apprentice, or servant in any profession,
7 Carey, C. H. Op. cit., p. 398.
»U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census: 1920, vol. 9, Manufactures, p. 1237.
"Porntt, Annie G. Laws Affecting Women and Children, p. 8.
10 Oregon. Statutes, 1853-54, ch. 37, secs. 1 and 2, p. 258.




INTRODUCTION

3

trade, or employment.” 11 This had some right to be called labor
legislation, which can not be said of the act of 1853 that replaced it
and that was designed to assist in the support of the poor rather than
to teach children trades.12 * For
* in this later law there was no stipu­
lation that the apprentice should be taught a trade, nor was the term
of apprenticeship made definite. Children under 14 might be bound
until that age; minors 14 and over might be bound, females until the
age of 18 years or to the time of marriage and males until the age of
21 years. Girls were allowed to marry at 12 years of age when the
apprenticeship law was passed. The law did require that the con­
tract should provide “ for teaching such children to read, write, and
cipher, and for such other instruction, benefit, and allowance, either
within or at the end of the term, as the county commissioners may
think reasonable.” The phrase “ benefit and allowance ” sounds sus­
piciously like an agreement for remuneration of some kind, “ either
within or at the end of the term,” a minimum wage perhaps, for the
little apprentice or servant, since it was to be a “ reasonable allow­
ance.” Another just provision was that “ all consideration of money
or other things paid or allowed ” by the master to the apprentice or
servant “ shall be paid or secured to the sole use of the minor.”
The children under this law had one advantage that would-be
apprentices 50 years later lacked. This was the duty devolving upon
parents, guardians, probate judges, and county commissioners to
defend them from “ breach of covenant ” on the part of masters, who
were made liable to an action in the district court and to damages
for such breach. Had this law been operative until recent times, the
modern milliner and dressmaker in Oregon would have had many
breaches of covenant to answer for in the almost universal custom
(prior to 1913) of hiring young girls as “ apprentices ” to teach
them the trade; the employers’ method of instruction, until 1913, was
to retain them for a year at $1 or less a week, use them as errand
girls, rippers, or basters, or at other simple work, and then dismiss
them when they asked for real instruction or a real wage.
The law of 1849 was, if anything, harder on the apprentice than on
the master who was guilty of any gross misbehavior or of refusal to
do his duty, for the apprentice might be put in the county jail until
he or she “ be contented and will serve.” 18 The law of 1853 gave
the county commissioners power to bind as apprentices or servants
the minor children of any poor person actually chargeable to their
county and all minor children themselves chargeable to the county,
The insertion of this section does not alone argue, however, that the
law was a measure to assist in the support of the poor, but tbe failure
to stipulate that the child should be taught a trade prevents its being
called labor legislation. These two measures are the only legislation
passed in pre-State years that had a reference to women employed
for wages.
Even though no documentary evidence of it existed, it would be
very certain that pioneer women bore a full share of the work of
11 Oregon.
12 Oregon.
18 Oregon.

General Laws, 1843—1849, sec. 1, p. 110.
Statutes, 1853-54, ch. 3, secs. 1—7, pp. 360, 366-367.
General Laws, 1843-1849, sec. 3, p. 111.

64719°—31----- 2




4

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

establishing civilization in the Oregon country.14 Woman’s contri­
bution in the settlement of the Pacific coast probably was analogous
in value to that of the women of the Atlantic coast in the days of the
Revolutionary War and of the War of 1812. For, though men
cleared the forests and made safe the road that civilization might
move forward, their activities toward that end would have been
largely wasted unless women had come to their aid. The latter main­
tained civilization in the pioneer country by their system of house­
hold manufactures. Oregon women exercised much ingenuity in
supplying husbands and children with clothing, and many were their
discouragements and failures after supplies from home had given
out before they learned the Indian woman’s art of making buckskin
into wearable garments for men and boys.15
The census of 1850 was the first to give any returns for Oregon,
and from its columns can be gathered some information about
women. In the total female white population of 4,949 persons, 2,958
were 10 and under 60 years of age.16 No women were reported as
employed, but from the list of occupations of men has been compiled
the following as representing types of work with which women
probably were associated: Bakers, 13; boarding-house keepers, 6;
clothiers, 1; cloth manufacturers, 1; confectioners, 1; farmers, 1,702;
gardeners and florists, 2; hat and cap manufacturers, 1; inn keepers,
16; merchants, 164; tailors, 26; and weavers, 2.17
From the original schedules of the United States census of 1850,
which are in the possession of the State library at Salem, Qreg., it is
apparent that at least 24 of the farmers were women.18 Twenty-two
of these women are credited with the ownership of 1,529 acres of
improved and 3,665 acres of unimproved land and six of them owned
individually as much as a full section or more. The cash value of the
farms is estimated at $40,065; of the farm machinery at $2,850.
Among the property of the 24 female farmers were cattle, including
milch cows to the number of 291 and 69 work oxen. Besides these
animals the women possessed 70 horses, 450 swine, and 35 sheep, with
an estimated value for all the livestock of $28,620.
Nine women who raised garden produce for the market gave
$2,750 as the value of such produce. There was an interesting
diversity in the crops raised. Some women seemed to specialize in
butter making. The total amounts of the products follow: Bushels
1* Various stories are tola of the economic activities of the women of those days but
ihn!y i1 i,feZ caIl.l,e St™? here. 0f Wrs- Nancy Morrison, who crossed the plains in 1843.
it lias been written that she was well versed in dairy management, spinning, weaving and
soap making, as well as in the rougher preparation of flax and hemp for the spinning
process. She brought with her across the plains a flax wheel, flaxseed, bobbins, and weav­
ing sleighs, necessary for the domestic manufacture of clothing. (Oregon Pioneer Assocmtion Proceedings, 1890, pp. 60-80.) Mrs. Lucinda Brown Spencer, who came to Oregon
m 1847, spent the first two years in Salem, where in the winter of 1848 she made caps
and mens clothing, and in the summer following made hats for men and women out of
plaited wheat straw, at which she was quite expert. (Ibid., 1887, pp 74-78 ) In 1848
too, Charles F Putnam was for eight months printer of the Oregon American and Evan­
gelical Unionist, and during this time he taught his wife, Rozelle Applegate Putnam to
set type, and she thus ‘became the first woman compositor on the Pacific coast.” (Cen­
tennial History of Oregon, by Joseph Gaston, vol. 1, p. 625, and vol. 4, p. 460.) Mrs. J. T
fhidrv^h^Ve^paid Xor tl)G first piece of dress goods that she’purchased in
^Oregon Native Son yoL% ,rX. 7,epa31)i)a '
‘ ° S°ft SOap °f her own manufacture.
IS Oregon Pioneer Association, Proceedings, 1880, pp. 8-27 ; Tryon, Rolla M Household
now? States’ 1640-1860, pp. 6, 112, 157 ; and Judson, Katherine
Berry, Early Days m Old Oregon, p. 199.
“ U. S. Bureau of the Census. Seventh Census : 1850, pp. 988-993
17 Ibid., pp. 1004-1005.
.. 18
S. jynyaii of the Census. Seventh Census: 1850. Original schedules. Schedule
No. 4, Products of Agriculture.




INTRODUCTION

5

of wheat 2,057, of oats 508, of potatoes 1,315; the pounds of butter
made were 2,669, of wool raised 88; two women had made 50 gallons
of wine each, and one had raised 8 tons of hay.
The enterprise of these women leads to the conclusion that many
others shared largely in the production of similar commodities on
their husbands’ farms. In the census returns of 1850 referred to are
the following articles that usually come within woman’s province:
29,686 pounds of wool, 211,464 pounds of butter, 36,980 pounds of
cheese, 640 pounds of flax, and 8 pounds of hops.19 The butter and
cheese without doubt were the product of the women’s hands, for
the list of men’s occupations has “ Dairymen, none.” 20 The prepa­
ration of the flax was shared by women. It is known that spinning
wheels were common in Oregon, that flax was spun and woven into
linen for home uses and cotton21 into dresses for the girls, and that
home-grown wool was spun, dyed, and woven into clothing for the
entire family, including suits for husbands and sons.22 23What was
woman’s exact share on the western frontier in the production of
raw materials and in the conversion of them into useful articles is
a question that can not be answered, nor is it necessary to do so.
One needs only to remember that in 1849 nearly two-thirds of the
male population flocked to the California gold fields 28 and the labor
necessary for the success of the crops of that year and of 1850 fell
Largely to the lot of the women; hence the products may be in equal
measure ascribed to them.
Newspaper advertisements of the period 24 yield the information
sought when news articles do not. In 1853 and the years following,
the merchants printed long lists of the articles carried in stock,
though one firm condensed its advertisement by saying that it car­
ried everything “ from a needle to an anchor.” These articles were
offered “ for sale or barter,” “ in exchange for wrheat, cheese, eggs,
oats, bacon, shingles, barley, butter, lumber ”; and lard was another
product frequently called for. It is worthy of note that of these 10
staples 4—cheese, eggs, butter, and lard—fell entirely within the
province of women’s activities, and a fifth one, bacon, partly so.
The Eighth Census, that of 1860, gives more concrete data.25 The
population had almost quadrupled during the 10 years of territorial
organization; from 13,294 in 1850 it had grown to 52,465 in 1860.
Females were almost one-third at the earlier date; at the later they
were about two-fifths, or 20,874, including 165 Indian and “ free
colored ” women. In the list of “ occupations ” (male or female not
specified) appear the following, some of which evidently were the
occupations of women: Farmers 7,861, laundresses 42, milliners 5,
merchants 446, nurses 5, seamstresses 15, servants 312, teachers 206,
weavers 11, wool combers and carders 4.26
19 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Seventh Census : 1850, pp. 1006-1010.
20 Martha Gilliam Collins has left a record to the effect that in the summer of 1853 her
mother saved $800 from the sale of butter and bacon prepared in their home by Mrs.
Gilliam and her children. (Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 17, p. 367.)
21 The Oregonian and Indian’s Advocate, Lynn, Mass., in the issue of October, 1838,
quotes the following from Spalding’s Journal : “ Figs and citrons, oranges, lemons, pome­
granates. cotton plants * * * were laid out in Dr. John McLoughlin’s acres.”
22 Mr. Perham, a wool carder, advertised in 1853 that he would be ready to “commence
carding on the 15th of June and continue as long as there is anything to do. * * *
All kinds of produce taken in payment for carding. Spinning wheels kept on hand for
sale.” From The Oregon Statesman, July 4, 1853.
23 Carey, Charles H. History of Oregon, p. 505.
24 The Oregon Statesman, 1853 to 1857.
25 IT. S. Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census: 1860. Population, p. 400.
20 Ibid., p. 405.




6

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

A woolen mill erected in 1855 by Joseph Watts 27
* 2employed
*
27
males and 3 females; this had four sets of cards and manufactured
52,500 yards of cloth worth $46,000, and 6,000 pairs of blankets
valued at $39,000, using 150,000 pounds of raw wool. Lumber mills
employed six women, and a flour mill one.28 The list of occupations
includes also “barkeepers 32”; and since besides these there were
5 boarding-house keepers, 74 innkeepers, and 85 refectory keepers,
it seems safe to surmise that women cooperated in the last three
enterprises.
However, manufacturing did not keep pace with the growth of
population. Demand for Oregon flour, lumber, and farm and
orchard products maintained the demand for agricultural labor, and
kept its price so high that manufactured articles such as farm ma­
chinery, house furniture, and articles of wearing apparel could be
imported from the East more cheaply than they could be made at
home.
The Oregon Spectator for 1845 and 1846 has only two manufac­
turers among its advertisers, a “ tavern and tannery ” and a “ hat
manufactory.”29 In 1856, an article in The Oregon Statesman an­
nouncing the opening of the Watt Woolen Mill calls it a laudable
effort to start a manufacturing business in the Territory, because
“ there is a constant stream of money flowing out of Oregon for
woolen fabrics imported into it. There are not less than 50,000
head [of sheep] now in the Territory. There is no market for it
[wool] here, and it can not be exported at a profit.” 30
As long as Oregon remained an agricultural State, with the number
of women disproportionately small, women found plenty of work at
home. In the original schedules of the Seventh Census, previously
mentioned, Schedule 6 contains what are called “ social statistics,”
including the weekly wages paid to female domestics, with board.31
These wages range from $6 a week in Marion County to $10 a week
in Benton, Linn, Polk, Washington, and Yam Hill Counties and $20
a week in Clatsop County. The real wages of domestics may be gaged
roughly from the price of a week’s board allowed or charged to a
laboring man. This varied from $6 in Benton and the other counties
paying women $10 a week to $12 in Clatsop and $5 in Marion. Wages
of these women employed in domestic work were low compared to
men’s wages; for farm hands received $75 a month and board, and day
laborers $4 and $5 a day and board, except in Marion County, where
farm hands received $50 a month and board, and day laborers $3
a day and board. When the demand for male labor on farms
increased, a reason was provided for inviting women to factories,
laundries, and restaurants. For a different reason girls were asked
eventually to take up telephone operating; boys were tried as oper­
»Robertson, ,T. R. A Pioneer Captain of Industry in Oregon. In Oregon Historical
Society Quarterly, vol. 4, 1903, p. 150.
2S U. S. Bureau of the Census. Eighth Census : 1860. Manufactures, p. 492; and Intro­
duction, p. xxv.
“Advertisement in the Oregon Spectator, May 28, 1846 : “ Hat manufactory, Oregon
City. John Travers and William Glaser * * * are now ready to supply their friends
and customers with hats manufactured in Oregon. » » » Wool, beaver otter raccoon
wildcat, muskrat, mink, prairie wolf, and fox skin will be taken in exchange for hats ”
(Inserted for the first time Feb. 5, 1846.)
30 The Oregon Statesman. Apr. 8, 1856.
51U. S. Bureau of the Census, Seventh Census: 1850. Original Schedule No. 6 Social
Statistics, p. 735.




INTRODUCTION

7

ators at first, but they had to be rejected as a group because of their
impatience and inability to bear the nerve strain.
In 1872, when the woman’s sole trader bill32 was passed, the most
recent census figures (those of 1870) showed 683 women 10 years of
age and over, including 41 girls 10 to 15, gainfully employed.33 The
number receiving earnings must have been far greater than this,
judged by data similar to those used for deductions as to women’s
employment in earlier years. Furthermore, the legislature would not
have passed a law for which there was no demand. Though the
employment of women outside the home increased steadily, if slowly,
with the development of the State, no action was taken to prescribe by
law the conditions of their employment until 1903. The reasons for
this may be found in the slow advance made in the United States
by protective legislation for wage-earning women. No compulsory
limitation of their working day existed until 1879, when Massachu­
setts adopted an enforceable 10-hour-a-day law for women workers.34
By 1890 only seven more States, and some of these not largely indus­
trial, had followed Massachusetts’s good example.35 Meanwhile, in
Oregon, where lumbering and agriculture still were the chief occupa­
tions of large numbers of persons, the agitation for the prohibition of
intoxicating liquors and for equal suffrage engrossed women. The
fact that industrial problems were developing in the State might not
have been called to the attention of the population at large for 10
years later than was the case had not the State Federation of Labor
been organized in 1902.36
At the first annual convention of the State Federation of Labor,
in Portland, May, 1902, there were 77 unions, several of which had
women members.37 One, the shirt, waist, and laundry workers, had
two women as well as two men delegates.
Some of the purposes in the convention’s “ declaration of pur­
poses ” were to prevent unfavorable legislation; to foster favorable
legislation; to prevent the growth of the evil of child labor; and to
work unitedly for the universal 8-hour workday. Throe separate
resolutions were adopted concerning the passage of an 8-hour law
at the coming session of the legislature.38 Another resolution was
concerned with the prohibition of labor for children of either sex
under 15 years, and still another with the establishment of the office
of commissioner of labor statistics. Among the 62 resolutions voted
upon there was none concerning limitation of women’s hours. This
was intended, presumably, in the proposed universal 8-hour law.
There was in Oregon at this time, according to the 1900 census, a
female population of 180,551, and more than 18,000 of the women
as much as 10 years of age 39 were wage earners. Among the latter
M This law exempted a married woman’s earnings from the debts and contracts of her
husband.
“ U. S. Bureau of the Census. Ninth Census : 1870, yol. 3. The Statistics of the
Wealth and Industry of the United States, pp. 808, 826.
34 Commons and Andrews. Principles of Labor Legislation, p. 233.
* Women’s Educational and Industrial Union: Labor Laws and Their Enforcement with
Reference to Massachusetts, chs. 1 to 5.
36 Individual trade-unions had been organized in Oregon as early as 1853.—Oregon
Labor Commission. Second Biennial Report, 1904-06, p. 51.
37 Oregon State Federation of Labor. Proceedings of First Annual Convention, 1902,
pp. 17-20.
38 Ibid., pp. 5, 28, 31, 32, 33-36.
3a U. S. Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census: 1900, vol. 2, Population, pp. xxiv, cxxxi.




8

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

slightly more than 500 were at the ages of 10 and under 16.10 The
entire group of over 18,000 was 13.3 per cent of the female population
of 10 years or more, or about 10 per cent of the whole female popu­
lation.40
41 These were in the following occupational groups:42
Number
Agricultural pursuits.................................................. .
Professional service____ ______ ______ __ ...
Domestic and personal service________ ______
Trade and transportation...........................................
Manufacturing and mechanical industries____ ______
Total____ _____ ____________ ____________ _

Per cent

1,560
3,366
7,485
2,434
3, 592

8.5
18.2
40.6
13.2
19.5

18, 437

100.0

Nearly two-fifths of these were concentrated in Portland, the only
city having more than 50,000 inhabitants. Here the female popula­
tion was 30,693, of whom 7,186, or almost one-fourth, were gainfully
employed.43 The question of a predominating foreign element in
the female population can not be said to have complicated Oregon’s
industrial question at any time. In 1900 there were employed in
Portland 1,434 foreign-born white women 16 years of age or more—
about one-fifth of the city’s employed female population—and 128
negro woinen. In the smaller cities and country districts there were
1,318 foreign-born women, and so the total number of that group
comprised about 11 per cent of the entire female wage-earning
population.44
40 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census : 1910, vol. 4, Population, Occupa­
tions, p. 75.
41 Ibid. Twelfth Census : 1900, vol. 2, Population, p. cxxxi.
42 Ibid., pp. cxxxix, cxi.
43 Ibid., p. civ.
44 Ibid. Special report, Statistics of Women at Work, pp. 146, 153.




DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY
All the various phases of the distribution of women gainfullyemployed have not been completely surveyed in Oregon, owing
partly to the limited funds at the disposal of the State labor com­
missioner and of the industrial welfare commission.
At date of writing, the 1930 census figures showing occupation by
sex have not been made public. There is available only the state­
ment that of all persons gainfully employed, 81,321 (19.9 per cent)
were females; this number representing 17.9 per cent of the female
population. Consequently, statistics from the Federal census for 1920
supplied much of the material for the summaries that follow.
NUMBER AND OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNING WOMEN

The female population of Oregon 10 years of age and over was
295,928 when the census of 1920 was taken. Of this number, 54,492,
or 18.4 per cent, were gainfully employed, as compared to 17.5 per
cent employed of the population in 1910. The occupations that
enrolled the greatest numbers of women were those grouped as
“ domestic and personal service,” where over one-fourth (26.7 per
cent) of all the women workers were found. Professional service
(19.6 per cent) and clerical occupations (19.7 per cent) each engaged
almost one-fifth. Manufacturing and mechanical industries had
slightly more than one-eighth (13.2 per cent). Trade claimed oneninth (11.8 per cent), agriculture and transportation each between
4 and 5 per cent, public service not otherwise classified 0.6 per cent,
and extraction of minerals less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.
The table that follows gives this occupational distribution for
Oregon and for women similarly employed in the United States as
a whole.45 It is interesting to note the greater proportions of women
in trade, professional service, and clerical occupations and the
smaller per cents in agriculture and manufacturing in Oregon than
in the United States as a whole. Workers in domestic and personal
service are in nearly the same proportions, the Oregon percentage
being the greater by 1.1 points.
Occupational distribution of females 10 years of age and over, United States and
Oregon, 1920
Occupational division

United
States

Oregon

100.0

100.0

12.7
(“)
22.6
2.5
7.8
.3
11.9
25.6
16.7
Per cent of total female population 10 years of age and over gainfully employed.........
* Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.
45 U. S. Bureau of the Census.
tions, pp. 47, 55.




(•)

21.1

4.2
13.2
4.1
11.8
.6
19.6
26.7
19.7
18.4

Fourteenth Census: 1920, vol. 4, Population, Occupa­

9

10

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

AGE DISTRIBUTION OP FEMALE WAGE EARNERS

Several factors have combined to keep the number of young wage
earners comparatively small in Oregon. Zealous inspectors have
enforced a good child labor law (see pp. 14—15), rulings of the indus­
trial welfare commission have so regulated the employment of minors
that adults often are preferred, and, finally, school authorities have
attacked with some success the problem of children leaving the ele­
mentary schools. At the time of the 1920 census there were 2,632
females under 18 years of age gainfully employed. These were dis­
tributed according to age as follows: Under 15 years, 122; 15 and
under 17 years, 1,095; and 17 years, 1,415.40 During 1930, 2,230
licenses that permitted minor girls to work were issued by the board
of inspectors of child labor; 47 662 of these allowed employment for
the entire day, age and schooling being satisfactory; 18 were part­
time permits, though really permitting a full-time workday on con­
dition that the minor spend at least five hours in school, which might
be night school; 1,178 were permits for work after school, on Satur­
days, or during the summer vacation; and 372, classified as “ in­
dorsed,” were simply verifications of original permits issued to new
employers when children already licensed changed their work. The
last named are of no assistance in an attempt to estimate the number
of minor workers, nor is this number known to any State official at
any time, due to the fact that neither employer nor child reports
when a job is given up. From the State labor commissioner may be
learned the weekly rates of 623 minor girls in 1929;48 12 of these
had rates of less than $6 a week, 165 had rates of $6 but less than
$10, 313 of $10 but less than $15, 107 of $15 but less than $20, 24 of
$20 but less than $25, and 2 had a rate of $25.
Women 18 years of age and over numbered 51,860 at the census of
1920. Classified according to age, the group in gainful employment
m largest numbers comprised the years 20 to 24. "in this were 11,201,
or 21.6 per cent of the adult female wage earners and 35.3 per cent
of the entire female population in that age group. In the group 25
to 44 years were 24,939 women; in the group 45 to 64 years, 10,111.
Over 1,000 women 65 years of age or more were wage earners.49
MARITAL CONDITION OP FEMALE WAGE EARNERS

Whether the husband is receiving wages inadequate to support his
family, whether the wife is unwilling to have the immediate care of
home and children, or whether some other cause is responsible, the
fact remains that the proportion of employed married women is in­
creasing. Of the female wage earners 15 years of age and over in
Oregon in 1920, 15,155, almost 28 per cent, were married, and nearly
9 per cent of all the married women in the State were wage earners.
Domestic and personal-service occupations, which ranked first in the
number of women employed, also had the largest number of married
“ U. S. Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census: 1920, vol. 4, Population, Occupations, p. 575.
pp” 11^2*' ®oar<^
InaPectors of Child Labor. Fourteenth Biennial Report, 1929-30,
^SrefonA Burea“ of Labor. Fourteenth Biennial Report, 1929-30, pp. 27-64
tionsV'pS'4U»m'eaU °
G Census- fourteenth Census: 1020, vol. 4, Population. Occupa-




DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

11

women, but they did not rank first in per cent of their wage earners
married. Over one-half (54.7 per cent) of the 300 women in public
service were married, while manufacturing and mechanical indus­
tries, which held fourth place in the number of women wage earners,
had second place in the number of married women.60
COMPETITION OF WOMEN WITH MEN

Competition of women for positions usually filled by men seems to
be very slight. Women predominate in certain kinds of work tradi­
tionally assigned to them, as in wearing apparel and knitted goods
and in woolen mills. Fruit and vegetable canning and apple packing
attract large numbers of women, but in the flour and cereal industries,
meat packing, coffee, spices, extracts, and pickle manufacturing,
creameries and condensers, and bakeries, men largely predominate.
Statistics from the State labor commissioner’s report for 1929-30 *51
showed that in wood and wood products in 1929 the men employed
were 21,371 and the women 954 in number. In wearing apparel and
knitted goods women were more than 70 per cent of the 1,705
employees, and they were more than half of the 443 in woolen mills.
In fruit, vegetable, chicken, and fish canning and preserving there
were 1,443 men and 2,360 women wage earners. In meat packing men
greatly outnumbered women, 504 men to 56 women (9 to 1) being the
ratio in that industry.
TRADE ORGANIZATION OF WOMEN WORKERS

Trade organization has not made great advance among women in
Oregon. Only 1,667 women were members of unions in 1929. These
were in 26 of the 75 groups organized in the State.52 The greatest
number of women were in the waitresses’ and cafeteria workers’ union
of Portland, 402. The culinary alliances registered a membership of
235, the garment workers 210, railway and steamship employees 153,
musicians’ associations 110, and the retail clerks’ union 100. Several
unions having small numbers of women used to enroll only men, as
the typographical union, which in 1929 had 558 men but only 15
women. However, the pressmen and assistants’ unions had 81 women
and 193 men, and the bookbinders and bindery women had 80 women
and 40 men.
SEASONAL EMPLOYMENT

Facts concerning the amount and extent of irregular employment
in a locality are important for the wage earners because of the light
that such facts throw on the whole question of unemployment and
on the opportunities open to the casual worker who needs to supple­
ment the family income.
Irregular employment is expected in those manufacturing occupa­
tions the material for which can be secured only at certain seasons
of the year. Fashions, holidays, tourist attractions, and unpredict­
able events are responsible for other irregularities. But even when
U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census: 1920, vol. 4, Population, Occupa­
tions, pp. 743, 785-786.
51 Oregon. Bureau of Labor. Fourteenth Biennial Report. 1929-30, pp. 24, 33, 40.
62 Statistics furnished by C. II. Gram, State labor commissioner.

64719°—31-----3




12

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

seasonal conditions are known and provided for as far as possible,
there is still an irregularity due to the uncertainty of the weather.
Gathering and preserving fruit crops will always be somewhat irregu­
lar ; and though the grower or producer may know within what
months the rush will come, he can not know ahead whether the peak
is to come early or late, with a gradual increase of material for work
or with a sudden ripening of all products within a short space of
time. Statistics of the employment of women in canning and pre­
serving industries for each month of 1929 present a characteristic pic­
ture. The number of women employed from January until June,
1929, varied from 74 as a minimum in February to 277 in May. In
June the number rose sharply to 3,137, and by September it reached
its maximum in 4,850. By December it had" dropped again to 679,
and in January of 1930, as judged from other years, it probably fell
to below 100. No other industry in Oregon presents a picture of such
extremes. Not even logging, which employed at the peak more than
9,000 men (August, 1929), had so great a fluctuation; its minimum
number of male employees was 4,i22 in January. The number of
women in this industry"is negligible, 58 the minimum, 129 the maxi­
mum, in 1929. But in derived industries, wood and wood products,
something over 1,000 females (1,089) were employed at the peak in
April, 1929, the minimum being 761 in January.
Textiles, comprising the making of woolens, knitted goods, and
manufactured wearing apparel, might be expected to show the in­
fluence of fashions and seasons, but employment here is regular for
the large majority of women workers. At no time during 1929 did
the number of women employed by firms making wearing apparel
and knitted goods fall as much as 12 per cent below the maximum,
the lowest point being 1,153 (in July) and the highest being 1,302
(in October). A fairly stable condition existed in the woolen mills,
but the numbers employed were small. In October the maximum be­
came 257, with September and November practically the same; this
had increased from 196, the minimum in February.
Mercantile stores showed a remarkably steady level in the number
of employees in 10 months of the year and heavy increases for the
Christmas trade. The extremes were 1,982 in April and 2,907 in
December. This means that 925 more women were employed at the
busiest than at the dullest season, but the maximum was for the very
short period of the Christmas rush, 600 employees being added dur­
ing the month of December alone. Hotels, restaurants, and cafe­
terias, as would be expected, had their largest force of workers in
the summer, each month showing an increase until the peak was
reached in August and each showing a decline after that. At the
maximum, 773 women were employed. At the low point in January,
the number was 666, a difference of 107. Laundries, due to changes
of methods in housekeeping and of style in dress, show less seasonal
employment than in former years. The difference between extremes
of employment in laundries in 1929 was 106 only, 1,009 women hav­
ing been registered in February and 1,115 in September.
Emergency permits issued by the industrial welfare commission
for overtime work may be considered in a discussion of irregular
employment. In 1930, 326 of these were issued. They were dis­




DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

13

tributed among industries as follows: Mercantile 187, manufactur­
ing 129, laundries 2, and offices 8. The report of the industrial wel­
fare commission states that the largest number of requests came dur­
ing the taldng of inventories. Distribution according to months
indicates that April had the largest number of emergency conditions
and September the least.53 63
63 Oregon
Industrial Welfare Commission. Ninth Biennial Report, 1929-30, p. 5 j
Hies of Industrial Welfare Commission and Bureau of Labor.




CHILD LABOR LAW54

_ On January 15, 1903, the retiring governor, T. T. Geer, and the
incoming governor, George E. Chamberlain, in farewell and inaugu­
ral messages, respectively, recommended that a child labor bill" be
passed, “ as a measure for prevention rather than for cure.” Gov­
ernor Chamberlain’s message, valuable as a review of the labor his­
tory of the State to that time, included the following:
Troubles between capital and labor have not at any time seriously affected
the business interests of the State. A spirit of toleration has existed between
employer and employee which is to be commended, and incipient troubles have
been easily settled by discussion and mutual concession. It is greatly to be
desired that the friendly relations which have always existed between these
great forces in Oregon may continue for all time. * * * Labor organization
has come to stay, and will stay as long as conditions exist requiring it. In
principle it is right. * * * A healthy public sentiment is driving the courts
from the extreme position once taken by them which scarcely recognized the
rights of the working classes. * * * In this connection, while yet Oregon is
in its infancy of industrial and commercial development, a law ought to be
passed regulating the employment of children and minors in factories and
workshops. Such legislation would not be seriously opposed at this time,
because as yet, be it said to the credit of the State, child employment is meas­
urably limited. * * * Conditions have changed and are changing so rapidly
that conservatism ought to be observed in all legislation along the lines sug­
gested.1*

Two child labor bills were introduced, one in the House, which did
not emerge from committee because of the Senate bill on the same
subject. The latter was introduced by Senator Henry McGinn on
the day of the governor’s inaugural speech and recommendation.
The State federation of labor had wished to prevent the employ­
ment of children under 15 years. The Senate judiciary committee,
to which the bill was referred, asked to submit a substitute bill, and
this was allowed.50 The provisions of this bill, which unanimously
passed the Senate, may be summarized as follows:
1-2. No child under 14 years was to be employed in any factory, store, or
workshop, or in or about any mine, or in telegraph, telephone, or public mes­
senger service; nor in any work nor form during school hours.
3. Attendance of children at school was made compulsory during the whole
of the school term for children under 14 and for children under 15 when not
employed.
4. None under 16 were to be employed before 6 a. m. nor after 7 p. m., nor
more than 10 hours a day and 6 days a week. Such children were to have not
less than 30 minutes’ lunch period outside of work hours, and employers were
required to keep the hours posted that those under 16 were employed.
“ oi the labor bills introduced in the legislature in 1903, the most Important were an
act for the protection of employees, popularly called the ‘‘fellow servant bln”; an act
creating the office of commissioner of labor statistics and factory inspection; and the
child labor and 10-bour law for women bills. The “ fellow servant bill ” seems to have
been the only one enacted that involved much difference of opinion. The Oregonian of
Feb. 5, 1903, reported that it was “ warmly debated.” The need for a commissioner of
labor was generally acknowledged and no opposition arose to this bill. Only the child
labor and 10-hour bills will be discussed here.
E5 Senate Journal, 1903, appendix, pp. 30-33.
K Ibid., pp. 258-260.

14




CHILD LABOR LAW

15

5. No person, not even a parent, might employ his child who could not read
at sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English language while a
school was maintained in the same town or city.
6. Corporations and individual employers were required to keep a register of
their employees under 16 and a record of ages and other information. When
the physical fitness of a minor appeared unsuited to his employment, a physi­
cian’s certificate of the child’s state of health might be required by the child
labor board.
7-8. In the case of the employer, the penalty for violation was set at not
less than $10 nor more than $25 for the first offense, with greater penalties
for succeeding offenses. In the case of the parent, the penalty was not less
than $5 nor more than $25.
9. The governor was authorized to appoint a board of five persons as in­
spectors of child labor. Three of these were to be women, and all were to
serve without compensation. Their terms were to be from one to five years,
respectively.67

Two points are to be noted in the bill: (1) That it did not prevent
the employment of children outside of school hours, and (2) that it
had no effect whatsoever on the so-called street trades. _
This report is not considering legislation concerning children
except where it is part of the legislation for women, but the first
child labor act has been discussed so as to show the good start that
the legislators made to curb the child labor evil and their sympa­
thetic attitude toward the State’s initial labor legislation.
In 1905 the law was amended by shortening the span of a day’s
work, which for minors under 16 might not begin before 7 a. m.
nor continue after 6 p. m. The required proofs of a child’s age and
school experience were made more explicit, and failure to produce
these by an employer was made prima facie evidence of illegal
employment. The board of inspectors of child labor was given per­
mission to issue permits for children of 12 to 14 years to work in
vacation periods.68
Apropos of amendments to the child labor law, one of the resolu­
tions proposed by two women delegates at the eighth annual conven­
tion of the State federation of labor in 1911 should be noticed here.
This resolution, introduced by Mrs. L. Gee and Mrs. Frank Cot­
trell, was as follows:
Whereas * * * the child labor law is not strictly enforced, and the law
itself not being broad enough; * * *
Resolved, That a bill be drawn and introduced to the legislature providing
compensation (such as the child would naturally earn) to be paid to the parent
during the compulsory school age, instead of making exceptions to the present
child labor law.

The resolution was adopted by the convention.60 This proposal
is interesting even now, in the light of the practice existing in France,
Holland, Belgium, and other European countries where employers
have cooperated to establish funds from which parents are paid
allowances for their dependent minor children. Further details as
to amendments of this law will be omitted, and a word as to its
constitutionality will finish this discussion.
In 1906, Mr. J. F. Shorey was convicted and fined for employing
a minor more than 10 hours in one day. In an appeal to the State57 58 *
57 Oregon. General Laws, 1903, pp. 79-81.
58 Ibid., 1905. ch. 208, p. 343.
,
, _
,.
“Oregon. State Federation of Labor. Proceedings of Eighth Annual Convention, 1911,
p. 28.




16

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

supreme court a decision was rendered upholding the constitution­
ality of the law because of the minor’s limited ability to contract
and because of the position of the State as “ parens patrise,” which
entitled it to “ exercise unlimited supervision and control over their
contracts ” and to protect “ the life, person, health, and morals of
its future citizens.”00 Newspapers have championed the legislation
from the beginning.*
“ State v. Shorey, 48 Or. 396, 86 Fac. 881.




TEN HOUR LAW FOR WOMEN

The women’s 10-hour law had an equally peaceful course through
the house and senate.61 62Through deliberate intent, the text of the
act was not so wide in its application as its title indicated. The
title read, “An act to regulate and limit the hours of employment ox
females in any mechanical or mercantile establishment, laundry,
hotel, or restaurant,” while the first section of the act read “ No
female [shall] be employed in any mechanical establishment, or
factory, or laundry in the State more than 10 hours during any
one day.” Thus, in order to get the bill through, stores, which
formed one of the large groups employing women, were allowed
their former privilege of unlimited hours.
_
It is to be observed that this first section permitted employment
for 70 hours a week, for though Oregon had a Sunday-closing law,
this could be complied with outwardly while in a real or fancied
emergency women might be employed most of Sunday behind closed
doors. Section 2 required every employer of women in the estab­
lishments mentioned in section 1 and in mercantile stores, “ or any
other establishment employing any female,” to provide suitable seats
for them and to permit them to use such seats when not engaged in
the active duties of their employment. No restriction was placed
on night work. Violation of the act was made a misdemeanor,
punishable for each offense by a fine of not less than $10 nor more
than $25. Justices of the peace were given concurrent jurisdiction,
but in that case they might not impose a fine greater than $5. The
act as thus outlined was the result of amendments in the senate, one
of which declared that as women employees in the State—
are not now protected from overwork, an emergency is hereby declared to
exist, and this act shall be in full force and effect * * * after its approval
by the governor.®

In 1907 the law was amended to include mercantile establish­
ments, but a vicious exception in their favor permitted them to
employ women not to exceed 12 hours in any one day for one week
immediately preceding Christmas Day.68 This precedent was tena­
ciously clung to until 1913, when it was set aside by the industrial
welfare commission after a difficult struggle.64 In 1907, too, the
penalty for violation of the law was raised to a minimum of $25
and a maximum of $100.65 * It was further amended in 1909 to cover
any telegraph or telephone establishment or office or any express
or 'transportation company, and a limit of 60 hours in any one
week was set.63
fll House Journal, 1903, p. 527 ; Senate Journal, 1903, p. 636.
62 Oregon. General Laws, 1903, p. 148.
63 Ibid., 1907, ch. 200, p. 360.
„ _
04 Oregon. Industrial Welfare Commission. Order No. 3, 1913.
65 Oregon. General Laws, 1907, ch. 200, p. 361.
M Ibid., 1909, ch. 138, pp. 204-205.




17

18

OREGON" LEGISLATION" FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Meanwhile, enforcement of the law had not been altogether easy.
.The labor commissioner had adopted from the very beginning in
the enforcement of this and the child labor law, li a policy of avoid­
ing expensive litigation ” by warning an employer accused of work­
ing his employees overtime, and the commissioner felt that this
method was securing cooperation in the enforcement of the law In
the third biennial report it was stated that “ The 10-hour law for
females during the last two years has been violated many times,” but
all except three cases were first complaints; the second complaints
Lad been prosecuted arid the offenders fined. In the fifth biennial
report a change of policy was recorded.
The law * * * lias been m force so long that all who employ females
know or ought to know its provisions. Therefore, (his office has discontinued
the practice of merely warning violators upon first offense and is proceeding to
prosecute promptly upon proof of violation. * * * The change has ennsed
more arrests and convictions but less violations of the law."
°
-

r The violations reported in the biennial period 1911-12 were 27.
Twelve of the offenders paid fines, 3 forfeited bail, 6 received sus­
pended sentences, 2 were dismissed before trial by the commissioner
ioi lack of evidence sufficient to convict, and 4 failed of conviction.
In the year 1906 two employers had been convicted. One of these,
a aundryman, Curt Muller, attacked the constitutionality of the
law.
He had for his encouragement the decision of the Illinois
supreme Court, which in 1895 had declared the 8-hour law for
women unconstitutional.89 But the employees had for their encour­
agement the more recent decisions of the Pennsylvania, Nebraska,
and Washington supreme courts, which in 1900 and 1902 upheld
similar laws m their respective States.79 The Oregon Supreme
Couit uphdcl the constitutionality of the law and the case was im­
mediately appealed to the United States Supreme Court, whose
decision in 1908, written by Mr. Justice Brewer, has made “ Muller v,
Uregon the precedent for all subsequent hour legislation for
women.71
The honorable Justice may be quoted as follows:
The single question is the constitutionality of the statute under which the
defendant was convicted so far as it affects the work of a female in a
shwifL,.
, It:.1S F16 laW °f Oregon that women, whether married or
single, bare equal contractual and personal rights with men. * * * it thus
,™P<;arS, tha> pU‘tllJg t0 one side the elective franchise, in the matter of
sex °n*al *1D * contractual rl8'hts the-v stand on the same plane as the other
That woman’s physical structure and the performance of maternal functions
Place
a disadvantage in the struggle for subsistence is obvious This
LC“lye VUe KVhel,‘ the burdens of motherhood are upon her. Even when
nhloot tw’ by abundant testimony of the medical fraternity continuance for
a lon„ time on her feet at work, repeating this from dav to day tends to
tbe body ; and as healthy mothers are essential to vigor­
ous. offspiinB, tlie physical well-being of woman becomes an oblect of public
“trSla?d ca V “ order t0 Preserve the strength and vigor of the race Still
again’ blstory discloses the fact that woman has always been dependent upon
man. He established his control at the outset by superior physical s?rengm!
P. 5 gS uio?-ao2n<loYandbOfth:SmT--ll;e^l]. » °J
1904-06.
-m&.io^“reopi?;40N
48 °r’ 252' 85 Pac- 855"
NebrC394m gTNalW 4*2!
» MuUei v. Oregon, 20S U S 412^1i




Pa„ 1900: Wenham *. State, 66
29 WaSh" 6°2’ 70 Pac" 52‘

TEN HOUR LAW FOR WOMEN

19

anrl this control in various forms, with diminishing intensity, has continued to
the present. As minors, though not to the same extent, she has been looked
upon in the courts as needing special care that her rights may be pre­
served * * *. Differentiated by these matters from the other sex, she is
properly placed in a class by herself, and legislation designed for her protection
may be sustained, even when like legislation is not necessary for men and
could not be sustained. It is impossible to close one’s eyes to the fact that
she still looks to her brother and depends upon him * * * that her physical
structure and a proper discharge of her maternal functions—having in view
not merely her own health, but the well-being of the race—justify legislation
to protect her from the greed as well as the passion of man. The limitations
which this statute places upon her contractual powers, upon her right to agree
with her employer as to the time she shall labor, are not imposed solely for
her benefit, but also largely for the benefit of all. Many words can not make
this plainer. The two sexes differ in structure of body, in the functions to
be performed by each, in the amount of physical strength, in the capacity for
long-continued labor, particularly when done standing, the influence of vigorous
health upon the future well-being of the race, the self-reliance which enables
one to assert full lights, and in the capacity to maintain the struggle for sub­
sistence. This difference justifies a difference in legislation and upholds that
which is designed to compensate for some of the burdens which rest upon
her * * *.




MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

Sentiment in favor of government regulation of wages had been
growing throughout the world for 25 years before Oregon’s mini­
mum-wage law was enacted in 1913. A report of a royal commission
in Melbourne, Australia, had aroused that eastern continent to the
pitiable condition of its sweated workers as early as 1884.
In the United States, two epoch-making works appeared not far
apart: Dr. John A. Ryan’s book, A Living Wage, published in 1906,
and the United States Bureau of Labor’s Report on the Condition
of Woman and Child Wage Earners in the United States, published
in 1910. The latter presented in its 19 volumes an array of facts
that convinced many Americans, before unbelieving, that women as
wage earners were liabilities rather than assets, and that through
their exploitation the country was being drained of that strength and
vitality on which its future existence depended.
Meanwhile, New Zealand in 1894, with the purpose of preventing
strikes, and Australia in 1896, in an attempt to end sweating, had
demonstrated the practicability of compulsory regulation of wages.
When England established wage boards in 1909, the applicability of
the principle to America began to appear more feasible. Shortly,
such organizations as the National Consumers’ League, the Women’s
Trade Union League, and the American Association for Labor Legis­
lation began to advocate and work toward the embodiment of the
idea in legislation.
THE OREGON SURVEY

The example of Massachusetts, which in 1912 created a minimumwage commission, aroused an interest in other States in their own
industrial conditions. Early in the summer of that year the Oreon Consumers’ League determined to investigate the question of
amily cost of living and the wage rates of family breadwinners.
In the month of July, under a special social survey committee, with
Rev. Edwin V. O’Hara as chairman, such an investigation was be­
gun. Before much had been accomplished, John Mitchell, of the
American Federation of Labor, during a visit to Oregon, advised
the survey committee to confine its attempt to an inquiry into the
cost of living and the wage rates of women, on the ground that both
information and future legislation would be more easily obtained
for women’s work than for work involving the male wage earner.
His advice was followed and the information sought was restricted
to what concerned the hours, wages, sanitary conditions of work,
and the cost of living of female wage earners. The findings of the
investigation were embodied in a report published as the Con­
sumers’ League Social Survey Report72 and were used in urging
upon legislators the need of action during the session of 1913.73

f

73 Consumers’ League.

20




Report of Social Survey Committee, 1913.

MINIMXJM-WAGE LEGISLATION

21

There were in Oregon in 1910, according to the Thirteenth Census
of the United States, 40,473 females 10 years of age and over gain­
fully employed, of whom 19,547 were in Portland; 12,911 of the latter
group were in occupations other than domestic and personal service.73
The Consumers’ League committee published hour regulations and
details of the sanitary conditions surrounding the work of a great
many of the group last mentioned and wage statistics for about 5,000
of them. Many women and girls were interviewed, but fear of los­
ing their jobs made large numbers of them reticent about giving
exact information. To insure accuracy in the information obtained,
the director and her assistants worked in 12 different factories. A
cost-of-living estimate was derived from expense lists that workers
were asked to make out, through visits to houses in typical middleclass and poorer neighborhoods and boarding-house and hotel dis­
tricts, to learn the cost of room and board, and through lists of cur­
rent market prices of food and clothing. The estimate finally ar­
rived at was that $10 a week was the smallest sum on which the
average self-supporting woman could maintain herself. Even then,
no allowance was made for recreation during the year and for sum­
mer vacation.73
74 Furthermore, this had to be an actual all-year
wage, not a nominal, irregular one yielding a much reduced total
income for the year. While the field workers were gathering facts,
the survey committee was preparing the bill, which eventually was
introduced by Senator D. J. Malarkey as an act—
To protect tlie lives and health and morals of women and minor workers,
and to establish an industrial welfare commission * * * to provide for
the fixing of minimum wages and maximum hours and standard conditions of
labor for such workers.'5

This passed the Senate unanimously, and, with three nays only,
the House.76
There are several reasons for such general consent that are inter­
esting in view of the radical nature of the measure. First, the sur­
vey committee and its investigators worked very quietly, the latter
very cautiously, in order to avoid opposition from employers. Sec­
ond, the moderate tone of the bill helped greatly to win it favor. It
set no sum as a wage, but left this to be announced after great delib­
eration in which employers would have a part. Third, the fact that
women had been given the ballot in the general election of 1912
and that the bill was indorsed by the State Federation of Women’s
Clubs and all other women’s organizations gave the legislators “ a
long, long pause.” Many of them were frank to say that now that
women had the vote their influence in politics would have to be
reckoned with. Fourth, it is probable that the emotional response
of the lawmakers to the revelation of disgraceful, insanitary condi­
tions in some factories had as much to do with the passage of the
bill as had anything else. While insanitary conditions could have
been remedied without a minimum-wage regulatory power, the hard­
est headed among them did not seem to think of this, but were
73 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census: 1910, vol. 4, Population, Occupa­
tions, pp. 37, 194, 206.
74 Consumers’ League. Report of Social Survey Committee, 1913, p. 20.
76 Oregon. General Laws, 1913, ch. 62, p. 92.
76 House Journal, 1913, p. 534 ; and Senate Journal, 1913, p. 403. The bill was signed
by the governor, Feb. 17, 1913.




22

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

willing to establish the industrial welfare commission and to allow
it general oversight of conditions surrounding wage-earning women.
The reasons for the passage of the act are given thus in the
preamble.77 *
.
Whereas the welfare of the State of Oregon requires that women and minors
should be protected from conditions of labor which have a pernicious effect on
their health and morals, and inadequate wages and unduly long hours and
insanitary conditions of labor have such a pernicious effect: Therefore * * *.

After such preamble the body of the act declares the conditions
that shall govern the buying and selling of women’s and minors’
labor, and the means whereby these conditions shall be fulfilled.
PROVISIONS AND AMENDMENTS OF THE LAW

The provisions of the law are 9, 5 major and 4 minor provisions.
The major provisions are as follows:
First, the declaration that “ it shall be unlawful to employ women or minors
in any occupation within the State of Oregon for unreasonably long hours;
* * * under such surroundings or conditions—sanitary or otherwise—as
may be detrimental to their health or morals; * * * for wages which
are inadequate to supply the necessary cost of living and to maintain them
in health; * *
Second, the creation of a commission of three persons to be appointed by the
governor, one of whom shall represent the employer, one the employee, and
one the disinterested public.™ This body is to administer the provisions of
Section I by ascertaining and declaring—
a. Standards of hours of employment, of conditions of labor, and of mini­
mum wages for women and minors in any occupation in the State.
Third, the stipulation that an order establishing a minimum wage shall be
issued only after a board, designated a “ conference,” representing the three
interests above mentioned, shall have investigated conditions of work and
shall have recommended the order to be made. The recommendations of this
conference may be accepted or rejected by the commission but may not be
changed.
Fourth, the requirement that public hearings shall be held on. the recom­
mendations of the conference, before orders based on these recommendations
may be issued. After an order has been issued legally by the commission,
appeal from that^order is allowed only on questions of law.
I Ifth, the provision that different orders may be issued for various locali­
ties when investigation shows that the cost of living differs.

The minor provisions permit the promulgation of special rates for
workers at piece rates as distinguished from workers at time rates,
lower wage rates for apprentices and minors, a limit to the time
during which women may be classed as apprentices, and special
licenses to women physically defective or crippled by age or other­
wise, authorizing their employment at a wage less than the minimum
time rate.
By_ an amendment to the law in 1915,79 the commission may issue
permits in case of emergencies for longer hours than are allowed by
statute or by. commission rulings. An emergency was later defined
by the commission as a situation which requires overtime work “ in
order to prevent suffering or distress on the part of the consumer or
f:nh A Living Wage by Legislation and the Oregon Experience. In
the Oregon University Commonwealth Review, .Tuly, 1016, vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 348-349
tUscnSf2°,ns pending over several years on the question ot consolidation
of State commissions and boards, the legislature In 1931 created a State welfare commisn
W.l™ 18 ™,.rePJce the industrial welfare commission and the board of inspectors of
cmici labor. In© labor commissioner is named as the secretary of the State welfare comM1UI42s'm1(?42«SiTen the powers atKl dutles of the two boaMs that it replaces.—House
79 Oregon.

General Laws, 1915, ch. 35, p. 48.




MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

23

general public.” 80 An emergency was not merely a matter of trade
convenience.
The canners, who have always chafed under restrictive hour legis­
lation, scored a double victory in the amendment of 1917 by which
canneries were removed from the authority of the commission and
practically from the province of the females’ 10-hour law; they are
permitted to work their women employees more than 10 hours a day
on condition that rates of time and a half are paid for all hours
over 10.81 82
WORK OP THE COMMISSION

The first commissioners were Rev. E. V. O’Hara, as chairman to
represent the public, Miss Bertha Moores to represent the employees,
and Mr. Amedee M. Smith to represent the employers. The com­
mission organized on June 4, 1913, the day after the law went into
effect, and on June 6 appointed a secretary. The work of calling
conferences as directed by law was then begun. While these were
being organized the commissioners decided to issue wage and hour
rulings for minor girls, as only public hearings, and not the lengthy
conference process, were necessary for this. Furthermore, they real­
ized that if the wages of the youngest and least skilled workers were
agreed upon, such decisions would furnish some basis of comparison
for older and experienced workers. Within six months rulings were
issued that applied to all women wage earners in the State except
those in domestic service, student nurses, and the professional women
who were earning more than a living wage. The number of women
affected by these rulings was approximately 24,000,
.
The wage established for minors was $1 a day. For adults the
rulings varied from $9.25 a week and $40 a month, respectively, for
mercantile and office work in Portland, $8.64 a week for manufactur­
ing occupations in the same city, to $8.25 for other occupations in
Portland and for any occupation elsewhere in the State.83 Com­
pared with the amount determined upon as the minimum sum
necessary for the decent subsistence of self-supporting women—$10
a week—these rates seem low, but compared with the wage rates
over which they were in advance—that is, for minors from 50 cents
a week to $6, and for adults from $3 a week to $9.25—they are
high. In issuing these rulings the commissioners were facing bitter
hostility, open and secret, from employers. Probably this opposi­
tion would have been more injurious to the interests of women
employees had not the commissioners ruled at the outset that all its
conferences should be open to the public and to representatives of
the press. Thus full and free advertising was given in the news
columns of the daily papers to the facts of the conditions of work
and of the struggle for existence of wage-earning women and to
the opinions of employers concerning their obligation to pay a
living wage. The employers therefore were hampered by such
advertising in the full expression of their genuine feelings about
the law.
80 Oregon.
81 Oregon.
82 Oregon.

Industrial Welfare Commission. Fourth BienDial Report, 1020, p. 9.
General Laws, 1917, eh. 163, pp. 208-200.
Industrial Welfare Commission. First Biennial Report, 1913-14, pp. 6-13.




24

OBEGON LEGISLATION EOB WOMEN IN INDUSTEY

At the same time that wage rates were being raised, hours of
labor were being reduced, the reductions ranging from 6 a week
in some industries to 12 a week in others. To have decreed highwage rates under such conditions would have given the employers
ground for their claim that the provisions of the act were unreason­
able, and would have jeopardized its future existence, with the pos­
sibility of repeal, even if the courts did hold it valid. Furthermore,
the commission took into consideration that these wage rates need
not be permanent. New conferences could be called and more
adequate rates established after the first rates had been applied and
both employers and employees had been familiarized with the work­
ings of the law. The situation, when the law first was administered,
was one that frankly called for a compromise for the sake of the
good that it might effect; hence recommendations for wage rates
lower than the survey committee had advised were accepted from
the conferences, and rulings based on them were promulgated.
Neither Washington nor California, which passed laws modeled
on Oregon’s that same year, had to contend with the problem of a
simultaneous reduction of hours and increase of wages. Washing­
ton had an 8-hour day and a 56-hour week, California an 8-hour day
and a 48-hour week, while Oregon’s day and week were, respectively,
10 and 60 hours. The fruit and vegetable canners, who are most
insistent on unduly long hours, were exempt from the California
8-hour law, whereas they were not exempt from the Oregon 10-hour
law. The Oregon commission, therefore, compromised on the ques­
tion of hours, for though a 48-hour week was its ideal, the length of
the day allowed by its rulings varied from 8 hours and 20 minutes to
9 hours, and the week varied from 50 hours to 54. Lunch periods of
not less than 45 minutes were insisted upon. Work after 6 p. m. was
prohibited for minors in all occupations in the State, and women
might not be employed in mercantile stores in Portland after 6 p. m.
nor in factories and laundries after 8.80 p. m. The hour last men­
tioned was the latest permitted for women in stores, factories, and
laundries in all sections of the State other than Portland.
In a number of places where women were employed, conditions
were unhealthful; in some cases they were a disgrace to a civilized
community. The commission issued individual orders for improve­
ments until a sanitary code could be prepared. Safety conditions
had been the province of the State labor commissioner since the
creation of his office in 1903. Thus was put into operation the first
compulsory industrial welfare act for women and minors in the
United States.83
Time proved the wisdom of the commission’s policy of moderate
regulation and revealed what legislation was inadequate, what loop­
holes existed for evasion by employees and employers, and what
untouched fields awaited attention. Consequently, conferences to
revise the first rulings and to propose new ones were called in 1916,
1918, 1919, 1920, and 1922. A summary of the first rulings and of
those in effect in 1931 is presented on pp. 33-34.
By a provision of the law the State labor commissioner was
charged with its enforcement. From the first his policy in the case
83 Authority for the publication of these statements concerning the policy of the first
Industrial welfare commission was given by Rev. E. V. O’Hara, first chairman.




MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

25

of a violation was one of adjustment rather than prosecution if an
adjustment could be made. Such adjustment was easy, especially
in the case of evident wage violations, since the law permits a woman
to sue for the difference between the wage paid and the legal mini­
mum due her, while it prohibits the employer from dismissing an
employee for testifying in any proceedings relative to this act. 'This
last provision is capable of evasion, but it has a salutary influence
in compelling obedience to the law because of the publicity that may
attend a prosecution.
Another reason for correcting violations by adjustment rather than
by prosecution is that such prosecution is intrusted to the district at­
torneys of the various counties. Unless these officials are sympathetic
with the purpose of the act, it is difficult to secure more than a half­
hearted prosecution, and consequently conviction is uncertain.
Complaints are reported to the offices of the industrial welfare
commission or to the State labor commissioner. So successful have
these offices been in adjusting complaints that the former office
had to resort to one prosecution only in the biennium 1929-30 and
the latter none.84 The State labor commissioner was able to adjust
183 claims of females for wages amounting to $3,289.38; 168 wage
claims, amounting to $11,997.72, were unadjusted. This lack of
adjustment was due in part to insolvency of the debtor, in part to the
inadequacy of other State laws, but it is hoped that this situation has
been remedied by the legislature of 1931.85 * Cooperation of em­
ployers with the commission was made possible through such em­
ployers’ associations as the merchants and manufacturers, the north­
west canners, the laundrymen, the office-building owners, and the
hop growers. When a violation of the law by a member of one of
these groups is reported to the industrial welfare commission, the
secretary of the association is informed, and he immediately
instructs the offending employer to comply with the law.
CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE LAW

The first rulings issued for minimum wages for women were made
the basis for two suits to test the constitutionality of the law. A
paper-box manufacturer in Portland, Mr. F. C. Stettler, brought the
first suit on the ground that the law confiscated his property without
due process of law, and an employee of his, Miss Elmira Simpson,
brought the second suit, claiming that the statute interfered with her
constitutional rights to make a free contract. Both plaintiffs asked
for an injunction to prevent the commission from enforcing a mini­
mum wage in manufacturing establishments in Portland.88 Both
were denied by Judge T. J. Cleeton of the circuit court, who declared
in his decision, “ Whether or not this legislative act is within the
police power of the State is controlling in the determination of most
of the questions * * * against it. 87
84 Oregon. Industrial Welfare Commission. Ninth Biennial Report, 1929—30, p. 5;
Bureau of Labor, Fourteenth Biennial Report, 1929-30, p. 15.
S5 House bill 319 provided a revolving fund of $500 for the use of the bureau of labor In
Initiating suits to collect unpaid wages.
80 Stettler v. O’Hara et al., 69 Or. 519, 139 Pac. 743 (1914) ; and Simpson v. O’Hara
et al., 70 Or. 261.
87 Decision of Judge T. J. Cleeton, Circuit Court of Oregon for Multnomah County,
printed by Industrial Welfare Commission, 1913.




26

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

The cases were carried to the State supreme court, which handed
down a unanimous decision, written by Judge Eakin, declaring the
law constitutional. The arguments of the plaintiffs had been that it
abridged freedom of contract; that the legislature in giving authority
to the commission to promulgate wage rulings had invalidly dele­
gated to the latter body a power vested only in itself; that the act
took away property without due process of law; and that the statute
was class legislation.88
. Justice Eakin’s decision in the case of the complaining employer
included the following declaration:89
It is conceded by all students of the subject, and they are many and their
writings extensive, that woman’s physical structure and her position in the
economy of the race renders her incapable of competing with men either in
strength or in endurance.

He then quoted extensively from Muller v. Oregon in support of
this contention and stated the question at issue as previously framed
by Judge Cleeton:
The first and principal question for decision is whether the provisions of the
act before us are within the police power of this State. * * * We use the
language of Mr. Malarkey: “ The police power, which is another name for the
power of government, is as old and unchanging as government itself. If its
existence be destroyed, government ceases. There have been many attempts
to define the police power and its scope; but, because of confusing the power
Itself with the changing conditions calling for its application, many of the
definitions are inexact and unsatisfactory. The courts have latterly eliminated
much of this confusion by pointing out that, instead of the power being expanded
to apply to new conditions, the new conditions are, as they arise, brought within
the immutable and unchanging principles underlying the power When new
conditions arise which injuriously affect the health or morals or welfare of the
public, we no longer say that we will expand the police power to reach and
remedy the evil. Instead we say that a new evil has arisen which an old
principle of government—the police power—will correct.”

The court concluded that every argument put forward to sustain,
the maximum hours law or upon which it was established applied
equally in favor of the constitutionality of the minimum-wage law
as also within the police power of the State and as a regulation tend­
ing to guard the public morals and the public health.
Justice C. J. McBride wrote the decision in Simpson v. O’Hara
et al., and he held that —
Having determined in the preceding case that the police power of the State
legtamateiy extended to the right to prevent the employment of women and
children for unreasonably long hours or at unreasonably small wages, * * *
it would seem to follow as a natural corollary that the' right to labor for such
long hours and at such wages as would reasonably seem to be detrimental to
the health or welfare of the community is not a privilege or immunity of any
citizen * * * But that the effect of this [fourteenth amendment J would
be to limit the power of the States to enact reasonable laws for the protection
of their women and children against the consequences of labor for a length of
time tending to impair health or at a wage barely sufficient to sustain life
never entered the imagination of the statesmen who framed it.8"

An appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court, where
Stettler v. O’Hara was argued in the spring of 1916; no decision was
reached, and the case was called for reargument in January, 1917.
„ 88jStettler
, . . v. TO'Hara,
.
. Simpson v. O'Hara, brief for the plaintiffs, C. W. Fulton ; brief
SLfSda^^1S^',B^el8’n;r?SPhil‘e GoWmarU supplemental brief for defendants,
Goldmark' S b ° k’ and DlbbIe ; brief on rearguments, defendants, Felix Frankfurter, J.
1 Stettler v. O’Hara et al., 69 Or. 525, 531-532.
“ Simpson 17. O’Hara et al., 70 Or. 261-263.




MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

27

By that time, Mr. L. D. Brandeis, who had prepared a brief for the
hearing before the State supreme court, had been appointed a mem­
ber of the United States Supreme Court. The vote of the honorable
justices stood four to four, Justice Brandeis not voting, and the law
was allowed to operate without a decision on its constitutionality.
DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE LAW

There were certain effects that the operation of the law, because of
its intent and its methods of administration, was calculated to bring
about. The more immediate and tangible ones were those that
sprang from situations claimed by opponents of the law as inescap­
able sources of failure for wage legislation. For this very reason,
these obvious and tangible effects were the ones on which popular
opinion based its judgment as to the success or failure of the mini­
mum-wage act. .These were the effects on the crippled, slow, or
aged workers, on the number of women workers, on their efficiency,
and on the leveling of wages.
Provision against working an injury to the crippled, slow, or aged
woman who could not earn the required wages was made by a clause
in the statute that permitted the commission to grant special li­
censes to such workers. The number who obtained these permits
was surprisingly small in view of the frequent assertion that there
were many women so slow that they could not earn a living wage.
During the first six years of the commission’s existence, the licenses
issued to adult women to work for less than the prescribed wage
averaged six a year. In 1924, 15 were issued, but several of these
were renewals to aged women who returned each year to the fruit
canneries during the busy season.91 Hence it may be concluded that
the wage act was not detrimental to the physically handicapped wage
earner.
What the immediate effects of the law were on the numbers of
women employed and their displacement by men, the efficiency of
women workers, and the leveling of wages was brought out by an
investigation of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in
1914, on the effect of minimum-wage determinations.92
As to the effect on the number of women employed and the dis­
placement of women by men, the investigators stated that though
the number of women had decreased after the determinations went
into effect, the number of men (who were not affected) had decreased
also, and that “ little if any of the loss of employment among women
as a group can be related to the minimum-wage determinations ”;
further, “ The wage determinations have not put men in positions
vacated by women,” partly because of the advanced rate required
for women.
Five years later, in 1919, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Labor
Statistics, seeking new information on the operation of the law, vis­
ited 13 establishments in Portland, employing 5,500 women, and 10* 82
“ Oregon. Industrial Welfare Commission records of 1916 and 1925 ; and U. S. Depart­
ment of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Minimum-Wage Laws of the United States :
Construction and Operation. By Lindley D. Clark, 1921, Bui. 285, p. 175.
82 U S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Effect of Minimum-Wage
Determinations in Oregon. By Marie L. Obenauer and Bertha von der Nienburg, 1915,
Bui. 176, pp. 9 and 12.




28

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

establishments in two smaller cities, with 360 employees.93 He re­
cords from a report of the commission “ that there was no case
known of actual deprivation of opportunity to work due to the law.”
Census statistics for 1910 and 1920 supply interesting information
as to the number of women employed three years before and seven
years after the law went into effect.94 In 1910, 17.5 per cent, and
in 1920, 18.4 per cent of Oregon’s female population 10 years of age
or over were wage earners. As there was a decrease of three points
in the percentage of men employed during the same period, it might
be concluded that women, with an increase of practically one point,
had displaced the men. But another explanation of the census fig­
ures is available. The census officials ascribe the decrease in the
number of persons gainfully employed to the change of the date for
collecting statistics in 1920. Statistics for the census of 1910 were
collected on April 15, when work in logging camps, general con­
struction lines, and agriculture was opening up. The facts for the
1920 census were collected on January 1, when these and other sea­
sonal industries were closed, and fewer employees, especially men,
were reported as gainfully employed than would have been the case
at a later date.
As to the effect of the wage rates on the efficiency of the workers,
the study of 1914, made in the mercantile stores, states that “ a com­
parison of sales made by women raised to, receiving, or who should
have received the minimum with those of women receiving above
the minimum does not reveal differences that would indicate a
decrease in the efficiency of those affected by the wage
determinations.”95
Testimony of employers concerning the work of women during the
war, when wages were decidedly above the minimum, disproves the
allegation that women “ soldier ” at their work when well paid.96
The employers * * * stated without exception that the women were as
capable as men, could in time become as skillful in the more complex tasks,
were steadier, quicker, and more dependable workers. A number declared they
would not discharge the women after the close of the war upon the return of the
soldiers, believing that women had made a new place in industry for themselves.

The Federal inquiry of 1919 has this to say on this point:
The law had never interfered with the employment of girls, nor did it
increase the actual selling cost, as attention given to the training of the selling
force enabled the workers to become more efficient.

One employer felt that the law “ was advantageous in attracting
a better class of workers and in stabilizing employment.”97
The opponents of minimum-wage legislation had based part of
their argument on the supposition that if some women were not dis­
missed so that salaries might be utilized to raise those below stand­
ard, the wages of the highly paid would certainly be reduced to make
93 TL S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Minimum-Wage Laws of
the United States: Construction and Operation. By Lindley D. Clark, 1921, Bui. 285,
pp. 171-185.
94 U. S. Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census: 1920, vol. 4. Population, Occupa­
tions, pp. 22, 46, 47.
95 U. S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Effect of Minimum-Wac^
Determinations in Oregon. By Marie L. Obenauer and Bertha von der Nienburg, 1915,
Bui. 176, p. 9.
90 Oregon. Industrial Welfare Commission. Third Biennial Report, 1917-18, p. 13.
97 U. S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Minimum-Wage Laws of the
United States: Construction and Operation. By Lindley D. Clark, 1921, Bui. 285, pp.
184-185.




29

MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

up the difference. That neither of these happened is proved con­
clusively by the 1914 report.98
The rates of pay for women, as a whole, have increased. Wherever the wage
rates of old employees have been changed since the minimum-wage rulings,
the employees were benefited. * * * More girls under 18 years received
over $6 a week after than before the minimum-wage determinations. Among
the experienced women not only the proportion getting $9.25 (the legal mini­
mum) but also the proportion getting over $9.25 has increased. The proportion
of the force receiving over $12 has also increased, although the actual number
has decreased. * * * The per cent receiving $9.25 * * * was increased
from 8.4 per cent to 22.4 per cent. The per cent of the force receiving over
$9.25 per week was increased from 40.6 per cent to 44.8 per cent * * *. As
a whole, therefore, the rates of the women employed in these 40 stores have
been materially increased since the wage rulings.

The Federal inquiry of 1919 gives further information to show
that the minimum wage has not become the maximum, and that,
what is equivalent to this, the higher wages have not been forced
down to any extent to make up the deficit in the lowest ones. To
quote from the report:99
The experience of employers is fairly expressed in the remark of one that
the minimum -wage did not supply them with workers, so that it was necessary
to pay more to secure the desired help; * * * Dry goods, telephone, and
restaurant workers were receiving about the minimum, and the rate established
in 1919 had been of no effect so far as they were concerned.
In the city of Portland but two establishments, both department stores, re­
ported that the higher rate of 1919 affected their pay roll directly, though
another quite large one found that the law had the effect of forcing up wages
indirectly, since the girls objected to receiving the minimum, as a sort of reflec­
tion on their capacity. * * * Hotel and restaurant employees were found
to receive considerably above the minimum, employers reporting the law bene­
ficial, one saying that it afforded satisfaction to both parties to know that the
wages paid and received were above the minimum * * ».

Complete statistics of wage rates paid in 1930 are not available.
An approximation of the standards maintained is possible, however,
from a study of the wTage rates of 16,149 women and 623 minor girls
employed in manufacturing, mercantile, laundering, and personalservice positions such as hotels and restaurants. The State labor
commissioner’s report does not give the hours per week that were the
basis for the weekly wTage rate. In the case of those women receiv­
ing under $6 a week, the surmise is made that this sum was for a
short week; $13.20 a week has been the minimum wage since 1919
for experienced adult workers in all occupations except office work;
and $9 a week has been the minimum for adult apprentices when
beginning work. The statistics for 16,149 women have been segre­
gated, therefore, with these two minima in mind, to ascertain how
nearly wages paid at present attain these standards.1
Weekly wage rates of 16,149 adult women employed in Oregon in 1929
Number having weekly rate of—
$6 and
$9 and
$13 and $14 and $20 and $40 and $60 and
Under $6 under
$9 under $13 under $14 under $20 under $40 under $60 over
558

200

1,826

1,245

8,271

3,976

68

5

m TJ. S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Effect of Minimum-Wage
Determinations in Oregon. By Marie L. Obenauer and Bertha von der Nienburg, 1915,
Bui. 176, pp. 9, 18—19.
90 Ibid. Minimum-Wage Laws of the United States: Construction and Operation. By
Lindley D. Clark, 1921, Bui. 285, pp. 184-185.
* Oregon. Bureau or Labor. Fourteenth Biennial Report, 1929-30, pp. 22 to 66.




30

OREGON LEGISLATION FOB WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

As already described, 623 minor girls had rates ranging from less
than $6 a week to $25 but less than $30. The minimum wage for
minor girls between 14 and 15 years of age ,is $6 a week, between
15 and 16 years $7.20 a week, and between 16 and 18 years $8.50
a week. Twelve girls had rates of less than $6, 82 had rates of
$6 but less than $9, 283 of $9 but less than $13, and 246 of $13 to $25
inclusive.
These figures would indicate that the weekly wage rates for the
majority of women at the present are above the minimum required
by law.
INDIRECT EFFECTS OF THE LAW

The most far-reaching effects of minimum-wage legislation, and
from some points of view the most important, are by no means the
most obvious. These are, that the law serves as a means to promote
industrial conciliation, to train the unorganized woman worker to
a sense of her place in the community, and to arouse in the public
a realization of its share in the adjustment and prevention of in­
dustrial problems.
The belief is prevalent that labor and capital are opposed to each
other, that what is to the advantage of one is to the disadvantage
of the other. Capital too often reads into labor’s constant struggle
for shorter hours, better wages, and clean conditions of work merely
a lazy man’s desire to get the most for the least effort. Labor,
unfortunately, too often sees behind capital’s wage offerings an
inhuman greed that loses sight of all rights of fellow men if only
it may blaze a path for itself.
A statute such as the Oregon act thus becomes the means of indus­
trial conciliation, by bringing together on the administrative board
itself (the commission) and on its advisory board (the conference)
these diverse elements, and by compelling them to explain their dif­
ficulties it causes them to adjust their differences and to realize that
there are means of cooperation that will work for their mutual
benefit.
There is needed no better evidence as to the conciliatory effects of
the law than a bulletin issued in 1923 bv the directors of the Manu­
facturers and Merchants Association of Oregon to the members of
the association. The signer of this bulletin was the representative
of the employers on the industrial welfare commission from Janu­
ary 1, 1924, until his death in October, 1926.
MANUFACTURERS AND MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION OB’ OkEQON

510 Oregon Building
Portland, Oregon
U. S. Supreme Court Decision

May 19, 192S
and Its Effect on
Labor Law

Minimum Wage—Child

The United States Supreme Court in a recent decision held the minimumwage law (for women) of the District of Columbia to be unconstitutional.
* * * It is unfortunate that a test of the law was necessary, as unquestion­
ably the law has been of great benefit to those for whose protection it was
enacted.
.
That laws of this kind are objectionable to a certain class of employers
and employees is to be expected, as in dealing with human beings the human
element must be taken into consideration, and that is a variable quantity.




MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

31

It Is a glowing tribute, however, to the human propensities of the average
employer of to-day, that once he became acquainted with the purpose and the
benefits of the law, he gave it his unqualified support, principally from a hu­
manitarian standpoint, with the. result that he was benefited by the reaction
of the employees in reciprocation of that attitude; and by that reaction the
employees were spurred to seek higher ideals of efficiency and were in conse­
quence benefited by an increased wage, until now (particularly in this State)
few, if any, employers are paying the minimum wage prescribed by the rules
of the industrial welfare commission but much in excess of it.
The purpose of this bulletin is to plead with all employers of Oregon to still
acknowledge the authority of the industrial welfare commission’s rulings, and
in no case deviate from them, nor in any instance where a higher wage than
the prescribed minimum is now being paid, to reduce such wage to the mini­
mum ; but on the contrary, where production and efficiency justifies it, rather
to increase the wage * * *. As evidence of the spirit that abounds in
employers of Oregon * * * the directors of the manufacturers association
resolve that:
“Whereas the experience of a great majority (if not all) of the employers
of Oregon who employ women is that the minimum-wage law of this State*
has been of such material benefit to both employers and employees (aside from
the humanitarian side of the question) that it would be most unfortunate as
well as a disgrace to the State to disturb the equitable and harmonious rela­
tions now existing where women are employed in our industries: Therefore,
be it
Resolved, That the Manufacturers and Merchants Association of Oregon
pledge to the industrial welfare commission their support and cooperation in
maintaining the present status of the Oregon law, and that we will use every
effort to discourage anyone from testing the validity of the law in the courts,
and will also use every effort to prevent the repeal of the law by the legis­
lature should such a thing be attempted; and as an evidence of our sincerity
we hereby pledge ourselves to be governed in the future, as we have in the
past, by the rulings of the industrial welfare commission.”
We would esteem it a great favor if all employers who receive this would
write us, expressing their purpose to conform to the position taken by our
association, so that the industrial welfare commission may be encouraged to
continue the good work they have been doing.
It must be remembered that the court’s decision did pot affect the child
labor law, as this was not an issue before the court; therefore our law in rela­
tion thereto still stands, and the rulings of the child labor board must be
observed.
Very truly yours,
Thos. MoCusker, Seeretary-Manager.

An illustration of the presentation of difficulties by employees is
found in the recommendations of the woman-employee representa­
tives, who were members of the Canners’ Conference, to their employ­
ers in 1922. The recommendations are moderate in tone and emi­
nently sensible. They cover several points that may seem trivial, as
favoritism and supernumerary bosses; but just such causes sometimes
are sufficient to upset and alienate an otherwise good working force.2
We are in favor of eliminating piece rates from Order No. 47, for the
following reasons: First, that any fixed piece rates will not secure for either
the worker or the cannery men a just return. If the rate is very low and
the fruit is soft or poor or unripe or mixed with leaves, stems, etc., the worker
is compelled to work too fast so that she may earn a decent wage to be able
to do good clean work. * * * We believe also that the guaranteed hourly
minimum will do away with the trouble so many of us have had with the
forelady showing favoritism, as it will then be her business to see that each
worker is busy. * * * There is one question which we are asking the
canners themselves to consider at this time, and that is the question of too
many bosses. We believe there would be greater harmony if we knew whom
we had to obey.
Oregon.

Industrial Welfare Commission.




Fifth Biennial Report, 1921-22, pp. 7 and 8

32

OREGON LEGISLATION EOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

Industrial peace must be promoted, too, by another indirect effect
of the law, and this is its effect on the less desirable type of employer.
Maud Swett, director of the women’s department, Wisconsin Indus­
trial Commission, in a public address3 in May, 1923, stated that the
Wisconsin commission uses u the example of the most progressive
employers to help to pull up the poorer ones to their levef” Not
every man who attempts to conduct a business is capable of doing it
with success. Scientific management has demonstrated that large
labor turnover is tremendously expensive, and that often it is due
to poor methods of “ hiring and firing ” and to low wages. An
employer of poor training, experience, or conscience may not realize
where his real difficulties lie. This type of man meets at the con­
ference table the high type of employer—“the best and busiest,”
who has always been ready to serve on the conference—and so the
poorly trained business man receives the benefit of friendly criticism
that he might not get in any other way. As a result, he begins to
look with less tolerance at his own actions and with more tolerance
on the actions of his employees.
A second far-reaching effect is the training of the unorganized
women workers to a sense of their place in the community.
Women’s world-old timidity due to their inferior strength has gone
with them into the industrial world. Thus protective laws for
women are harder to enforce because of their dislike of a fight and
of the notoriety attached to a court action. Where they have others
dependent upon them, their spirit of self-sacrifice inclines them to
put up with abuse rather than to subject their dependents to pos­
sible suffering by refusing to suffer themselves. Then, the position
of being dictated to in the family prepares them for accepting
silently in the industrial world what is offered to them. “ It never
occurred to me when I was starting out,” said one highly trained,
valuable worker, “ to question whether I was receiving adequate
compensation for my work ; I thought that I had to take whatever
was given to me.”
But the Oregon statute or similar statutes readjust abuses for
women in industry without causing suffering to the unseen depend­
ents ; the statute brings to them the feeling that the Commonwealth
values them sufficiently as citizens to obtain for them the justice they
may not have been able to obtain, and by increasing their apprecia­
tion of their own worth instills into them a confidence to work for
their own rights and emoluments. This is especially instanced in
the penalty attached to the dismissal of an employee for testifying
in case of violation of the law and in the provision that she may sue
by civil suit for back wages, even though, under the force of
circumstances, she has agreed to work for less than the law has
provided.
Ihe third indirect effect of the statute has been to arouse in the
public a realization of its share in the adjustment and prevention of
industrial hardships on women and minors, for it has become appar­
ent that the ultimate success of the legislation rests with the people
at large. They are the ones on whom, as taxpayers, the cost of the
underfed, overworked employee eventually falls; they are the ones




the UElted States

Proceed-

MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION

33

whose pleasure is the all-important objective of many employers;
and an active interest of the consumer in the wages, hours, and con­
ditions of work of an establishment is as powerful as anything else
to effect decent conditions in that establishment.
The operation of the statute brings to the attention of the public
the fact that the solution of some industrial problems begins even
farther back than the age of majority, when a woman is supposed
to be able to earn a self-supporting wage. It lies in the preindus­
trial period, the school life of the child until she is 16 years of age,
before she is in the hands of the employer and while she is in the
hands of those who have charge of the education of youth. Recent
legislation tends more and more to tighten the restrictions against
allowing minor children to enter the industrial world. Their pres­
ence there is a concession, partly to the need of the family and
partly to the expressed need of the employer for cheap help. The
term “ apprenticeship ” as applied to the learning period of inex­
perienced workers in machine industry to-day is deceptive and a
misnomer. Real apprenticeship as an institution has practically
disappeared, and nothing in industry as it is organized at present is
supplying its service. Thus the public is confronted at the confer­
ence table with personal representatives of the “ blind-alley job,”
the industrial tramp, the young “ jack-of-all-trades and master of
none,” and after a few sessions the thinking man and woman ask
themselves these questions: Does the solution of the problem of the
young worker who starts his working life with little or no equip­
ment rest with the educational system? Must the secondary schools
be turned into trade schools, to train children chiefly for their ad­
vancement in commercial life? Does the solution lie in the part­
time school? Does it lie with the employing establishments? Can
these save the young worker the drifting years from 15 to 20, and
will intelligent selection of an employee, careful placement in occu­
pation, sympathetic oversight in the performance of her duties, and
the prospect of more than a minimum wage as an incentive, offer the
solution ?
SUMMARY OF FIRST AND LATEST WAGE AND HOUR RULINGS OF
THE INDUSTRIAL WELFARE COMMISSION

Experienced adult women, 1913.
Portland.—Mercantile occupations, $9.25 a week; maxi­
mum weekly hours, 50.
Manufacturing occupations, $8.64 a week,
time rates; maximum weekly hours, 54.
Office occupations, $40 a month; maximum
weekly hours, 48.
All other occupations, $8.25 a week; maxi­
mum weekly hours, 54.
Remainder of State.-—All occupations, $8.25 a week; maximum
weekly hours, 54.
Inexperienced adult women, 1913.
Any adult woman who had, less than one year’s experience in an
occupation was considered an inexperienced worker. The minimum




/

34

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

wage for an inexperienced woman, employed at time rates of pay­
ment, was fixed at $6 a week for the first year.
Minor girls, 1913.
Minor girls, for the purpose of this ruling, were girls under 18
years of age.
Entire State.—Wage, $6 a week; maximum weekly hours, 50.
The foregoing rulings were in effect until September, 1916. Those
that follow are in force at the present time. Details and dates are
omitted. Details of all rulings are in the biennial renorts of the
Industrial Welfare Commission.
Experienced adult women.
Entire State.—Office occupations, $60 a month.
All other occupations,4 $13.20 a week; maximum
hours, 48 a week; student nurses, 56 hours.
Inexperienced adult women.
Term during which a woman may be called inexperienced, one
year. Beginning wage, $9 a week. Subdivisions of the year into
periods of three or four months have been required by the commis­
sion, and at the end of each period the apprentice, if retained, is
given a higher wage. The subdivisions of the year and the wage for
each period have been ruled upon for the various occupations.
Other rulings.
Minor girls may not be employed after 6 p. m. Mercantile stores
in Portland may not employ women after 6 p. m., and mercantile
establishments in other sections of the State not after 8.30 p. m.
Factories and laundries in the State may not employ women after
8.30 p. m. Maximum hours in all occupations in State, 48 a week, 9
a day.
4 Fruit and vegetable canneries have special piece-rate wage rulings; the commission,
by an amendment to the act, has no authority to regulate hours in the canning industry.




THE RIGHT TO FOLLOW CERTAIN PROFESSIONS

Oregon has never had a statute, that expressly forbade women to
enter upon the professions formerly considered as prerogatives of
men, such as the practice of medicine, law, or dentistry. Women
physicians have practiced in the State since 1869.5 Women attor­
neys sought admission to the Oregon bar in 1878, through a bill
intended as an enabling act, but the bill did not emerge from the
committee6 and the matter rested until 1885. In that year, a Mary
Leonard, who had been admitted to practice before the Supreme
Court of Washington Territory, asked to be admitted as a member
of the bar in Oregon. The action on her application and the attitude
of Oregon’s Supreme Court on the question of “ lady lawyers ”
appear in the decision of the court on the motion,7 8from which the
following is quoted:
The application is somewhat unusual. The applicant has produced a certifi­
cate of admission to the courts of Washington Territory, which * * *
would ordinarily be regarded as sufficient to entitle a person to admission as
an attorney; but the applicant being a woman, the court is in doubt whether it
has a right to admit her. The question is not free from embarrassment, and
the court would gladly avoid the responsibility of determining it. Courts,
however, have no discretion in such cases. They are compelled to follow
precedents, as they are evidence of what is law.
In a very able opinion of the chief justice of -Massachusetts it was held that
an unmarried woman was not entitled under the then existing laws of the
Commonwealth to be examined for admission as an attorney and counselor of
that court. Oregon’s statutes do not differ materially from Massachusetts’ in
regard to the civil and political status of women, and it follows, therefore, that
the same construction of the latter statutes would render women ineligible
to become attorneys in the State. This is the first application of the kind in
this State that the court has any cognizance of, and it is very generally under­
stood that women are disqualified from holding such positions. The legisla­
tive assembly has not manifested any intention by any act it has adopted to
confer such a right upon them, and it would be highly improper for the courts
of the State to take the initiative in so important a movement. * * * The
court is of the opinion that it has no authority under the existing laws of the
State to admit women as attorneys of this court and the application is denied.

It is gratifying to record that the legislative assembly, at a special
session that same year, passed an act declaring that—
Hereafter women shall be admitted to practice law as attorneys in the courts
of this State upon the same terms and conditions as men.'
* The Weekly Oregon Unionist, Aug. 10, 1869, Salem.
Sawtelle.
6 House Journal, 1878, pp. 411, 498.
7 In re Leonard. 12 Or. 94.
8 Oregon. Special session laws, 1885, sec. 1, p. 5.




Advertisement of Dr. Mary T.

85

WOMEN TEACHERS

Women teachers began to appear in Oregon almost as soon as
schoolmasters did, for teaching was an occupation to which any
moderately “ lettered ” woman could turn for a livelihood, and as the
population was sparse and settlements were isolated each little local­
ity needed its own teacher. In many districts, too, school “ kept ”
only from three to five months; indeed, not until 1917 was a law
passed raising the minimum school year from six to eight months.9
In pioneer days teaching did not oblige a person to follow this occu­
pation to the practical exclusion of all others, and the chief qualifi­
cation necessary in early Oregon was a good moral character. Liter­
ary accomplishments were prized when attached to the good char­
acter, but the anxiety to start schools made entrance to the teaching
career much too easy. As late as 1885 one county superintendent
suggested that the minimum age for the receipt of certificates by
women teachers should be 18. He had issued a good many to 16year-old girls, he wrote, and these had almost without exception
failed as teachers. In 1911 such a law, making 18 the minimum
age for the issuance of a certificate to any teacher in the State, was
passed.10
The proportion of women to men teachers in the public schools
had grown from 328 women and 437 men employed in 1876-77 to
6,640 women and 1,300 men employed in 1927-28.11
There seems to be ample evidence that up to recent years women
were discriminated against on account of sex in the payment of
salaries. In 1876-77 the average wage paid to men teachers per
month was $47.24, to women $34.87.12 The larger sum to men may be
accounted for partly by the fact that men were the principals where
several teachers were employed, and by reason of the greater respon­
sibility that position carried a higher salary. The youth of girl
teachers probably would affect their remuneration in some instances;
but the number of young, inexperienced teachers must have been
large to make the difference in salary, for the reason of youth alone,
amount to an average of $13 a month. In 1914 the difference in the
average salary of men and women in Oregon high schools was $23 a
month. Men teachers in that year received an average of $86.05;
women teachers an average of $62.98 a month; 13 and the very youth­
ful teacher had been eliminated before that time by legislative
enactment.14
In 1915 the legislature ordered that in the employment of teachers
the district boards should not discriminate between males and
° Oregon. General Laws, 1917, eh. 64, sec. 1 p 86
10 Ibid., 1911, ch. 58, sec. 20, p. 94.
7 Oregon. Superintendent of Public Instruction. Biennial Report, 1876-78, pp. 24-25 •
and Twenty-eighth Biennial Report, 1926-1928, p. 23.
u Ibid. Biennial Report, 1876-1878, pp. 24-25.
13 Official Directory of the Schools of Oregon, 1014-15, p. 7.
14 Oregon. General Laws, 1911, ch. 58, sec. 20, p. 94.

36




WOMEN TEACHEKS

37

females and the same compensation should be paid, taking into con­
sideration the years of successful teaching experience in the district
where the teacher is employed. Four years later the minimum
salary that the board of any district might pay to a teacher in the
public schools was set at $75 a month, and the county superintendent
was instructed to examine contracts to see that this law was obeyed.15 16
Women, having been given the opportunity, are taking an interest
in executive positions connected with school administration. A large
number were elected as county superintendents after equal suffrage
was granted. Directorship of a school district, an elective office, has
been conferred upon three women in Portland since 1900. The first
woman member of Portland’s school board held office continuously
from 1901 to 1911. The term of the present woman director will
expire in 1933. Only one woman has served as city superintendent
in Portland, the only large city in the State, and she was superin­
tendent from 1888 to 1891.18 In 1930, 13 of the 72 principals in the
city of Portland were women; 1 of the 2 rural supervisors in the
State was a woman, and there were 15 women among the 36 county
superintendents. The State board for vocational training has one
woman member. The State board of higher education, composed of
nine persons, was established by act of the legislature in 1929, in
place of the boards of regents of the State institutions of higher
learning. These include the State University, the Oregon State
College, and three normal schools. In February, 1931, one woman,
formerly State librarian, was appointed to the State board of higher
education for a term of nine years.17
15 Oregon. General Laws, 1915, ch. 99, sec. 1, p. 103 ; and 1919, ch. 79, secs. 1 and 2,
p. 88.
16 Public Schools of Portland. Oreg. Fifty-first Annual Report, 1923-24, pp. 109-110
17 Oregon. Superintendent of Public Instruction. Twenty-ninth Biennial Report, 1931,
pp. 5, 11.




PUBLICATIONS OF THE WOMEN’S BUREAU
[Any of these bulletins still available will be sent free of charge upon request]

♦No.

1. Proposed Employment of Women During the War in the Industries
of Niagara Falls, N. Y. 16 pp. 1918.
♦No. 2. Labor Laws for Women In Industry in Indiana. 29 pp. 1919.
No. 3. Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. 8 pp. Fourth
ed., 1928.
No. 4. Wages of Candy Makers in Philadelphia in 1919. 46 pp. 1919.
♦No. 5. The Eight-Hour Day in Federal and State Legislation. 19 pp. 1919.
No. 6. The Employment of Women in Hazardous Industries in the United
States. 8 pp. 1921.
No. 7. Night-Work Laws in the United States. (1919.) 4 pp. 1920.
♦No. 8. Women in the Government Service. 37 pp. 1920.
♦No. 9. Home Work in Bridgeport, Conn. 36 pp. 1920.
♦No. 10. Hours and Conditions of Work for Women in Industry in Virginia
32 pp. 1920.
No. 11. Women Street Car Conductors and Ticket Agents. 90 pp. 1921.
♦No. 12. The New Position of Women in American Industry. 168 pp. 1920.
No. 13. Industrial Opportunities and Training for Women and Girls. 48 pp.
1921.
♦No. 14. A Physiological Basis for the Shorter Working Day for Women. 20
pp. 1921.
No. 15. Some Effects of Legislation Limiting Hours of Work for Women.
26 pp. 1921.
No. 16. (See Bulletin 63.)
No. 17. Women’s Wages in Kansas. 104 pp. 1921.
No. 18. Health Problems of Women in Industry. 6 pp. Revised, 1931.
No. 19. Iowa Women in Industry. 73 pp. 1922.
♦No. 20. Negro Women in Industry. 65 pp. 1922.
No. 21. Women in Rhode Island Industries. 73 pp. 1922,
♦No. 22. Women in Georgia Industries. 89 pp. 1922.
No. 23. The Family Status of Breadwinning Women. 43 pp. 1922.
No. 24. Women in Maryland Industries. 96 pp. 1922.
No. 25. Women in the Candy Industry in Chicago and St. Louis. 72 pp. 1923.
No. 26. Women in Arkansas Industries. 86 pp. 1923.
No. 27. The Occupational Progress of Women. 37 pp. 1922.
No. 28. Women’s Contributions in the Field of Invention. 51 pp. 1923.
No. 29. Women in Kentucky Industries. 114 pp. 1923.
No. 30. The Share of Wage-Earning Women in Family Support. 170 pp.
1923.

No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.
No.

31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.

What Industry Means to Women Workers. 10 pp. 1923.
Women in South Carolina Industries. 128 pp. 1923.
Proceedings of the Women’s Industrial Conference. 190 pp. 1923.
Women in Alabama Industries. 86 pp. 1924.
Women in Missouri Industries. 127 pp. 1924.
Radio Talks on Women in Industry. 34 pp. 1924.
Women in New Jersey Industries. 99 pp. 1924.
Married Women in Industry. 8 pp. 1924.
Domestic Workers and Their Employment Relations. 87 pp 1924
(See Bulletin 63.)
Family Status of Breadwinning Women in Four Selected Cities. 145
pp. 1925.
No. 42. List of References on Minimum Wage for Women in the United States
and Canada. 42 pp. 1925.
No. 43. Standard and Scheduled Hours of Work for Women in Industry. 68
pp. 1925.*
* Supply exhausted.

38




PUBLICATIONS OP THE WOMEN S BUREAU

39

No. 44. Women in Ohio Industries. 137 pp. 1925.
No. 45. Home Environment and Employment Opportunities of Women in
Coal-Mine Workers’ Families. 61 pp. 1925.
No. 46. Facts about Working Women—A Graphic Presentation Based on
Census Statistics. 64 pp. 1925.
No. 47. Women in the Fruit-Growing and Canning Industries in the State of
Washington. 223 pp. 1926.
*No. 48. Women in Oklahoma Industries. 118 pp. 1926.
No. 49. Women Workers and Family Support. 10 pp. 1925.
No. 50. Effects of Applied Research upon the Employment Opportunities of
American Women. 54 pp. 1926.
No. 51. Women in Illinois Industries. 108 pp. 1926.
No. 52. Lost Time and Labor Turnover in Cotton Mills. 203 pp. 1926.
No. 53. The Status of Women in the Government Service in 1925. 103 pp.
1926.
No. 54. Changing Jobs. 12 pp. 1926.
No. 55. Women in Mississippi Industries. 89 pp. 1926.
No. 56. Women in Tennessee Industries. 120 pp. 1927.
No. 57. Women Workers and Industrial Poisons. 5 pp. 1926.
No. 58. Women in Delaware Industries. 156 pp. 1927.
No. 59. Short Talks About Working Women. 24 pp. 1927.
No. 60. Industrial Accidents to Women in New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
316 pp. 1927.
No. 61. The Development of Minimum-Wage Laws in the United States, 1912
to 1927. 635 pp. 1928.
No. 62. Women’s Employment in Vegetable Canneries in Delaware. 47 pp.
1927.
No. 63. State Laws Affecting Working Women. 51 pp. 1927. (Revision of
Bulletins 16 and 40.)
No. 64. The Employment of Women at Night. 86 pp. 1928.
•No. 65. The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment Opportunities
of Women. 498 pp. 1928.
No. 66. History of Labor Legislation for Women in Three States; Chrono­
logical Development of Labor Legislation for Women in the United
States. 288 pp. 1929.
No. 67. Women Workers in Flint, Mich. 80 pp. 1929.
No. 68. Summary: The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment Op­
portunities of Women. (Reprint of Chapter 2 of Bulletin 65.) 22
pp. 1928.
No. 69. Causes of Absence for Men and for Women in Four Cotton Mills.
24 pp. 1929.
No. 70. Negro Women in Industry in 15 States. 74 pp. 1929.
No. 71. Selected References on the Health of Women in Industry. 8 pp.
1929
No. 72. Conditions of Work in Spin Rooms. 41 pp. 1929.
No. 73. Variations in Employment Trends of Women and Men. 143 pp. 1930.
No. 74. The Immigrant Woman and Her Job. 179 pp. 1930.
No. 75. What the Wage-Earning Woman Contributes to Family Support. 21
pp. 1929.
No. 76. Women in 5-and-10-cent Stores and Limited-Price Chain Department
Stores. 58 pp. 1930.
No. 77. A Study of Two Groups of Denver Married Women Applying for
Jobs. 11 pp. 1929.
No. 78. A Survey of Laundries and Their Women Workers in 23 Cities.
166 pp. 1930.
No. 79. Industrial Home Work. 20 pp. 1930.
No. 80. Women in Florida Industries. 115 pp. 1930.
No. 81. Industrial Accidents to Men and Women. 48 pp. 1930.
No. 82. The Employment of Women in the Pineapple Canneries of Hawaii.
30 pp. 1930.
No. 83. Fluctuation of Employment in the Radio Industry. 66 pp. 1931.
No. 84. Fact Finding with the Women’s Bureau. 37 pp. 1931.
No. 85. Wages of Women in 13 States. 213 pp. 1931.
No. 86. Activities of the Women’s Bureau of the United States. 15 pp. 1931.•
• Supply exhausted.




40

OREGON LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

No. 87. Sanitary Drinking Facilities, with Special Reference to Drinking
Fountains. 28 pp. 1931.
No. 88. The Employment of Women in Slaughtering and Meat Packing. (In
press.)
No. 89. The Industrial Experience of Women Workers at the Summer Schools,
1928 to 1930. (In press.)
No. 90. Oregon Legislation for Women in Industry. 40 pp. 1931.
No. 91. Women in Industry—A Series of Papers to Aid Study Groups, (In
press.)
No. 92. Wage-Earning Women and the Industrial Depression of 1930. A
Survey of South Bend. (In press.)
Pamphlet. Women’s Place in Industry in Ten Southern States. 14 pp. 1931.
Annual Reports of the Director, 1919*, 1920*, 1921*, 1922, 1923, 1924*, 1925,
1920, 1927*, 1928*, 1929*, 1930*, 1931.
Supply exhausted.




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